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porroeet PYSCHOLOGICAL REVIEW PUBLICATIONS 


Psychological Monographs 


EDITED BY 


SHEPHERD IVORY FRANZ, Univ. or Cauir., So. BRANCH 
HOWARD C. WARREN, Princeton University (Review) 
JOHN B. WATSON, New York City (Review) _ 


MADISON BENTLEY, Unrversity or Ittinois (J. of Exp. Psych.) 
S. W. FERNBERGER, University or PENNSYLVANIA (Bulletin) and 
W. S. HUNTER, Crark University (Index) 


A Study of the Test-Performance of 
American, Mexican, and Negro 


Children 


By | 
HELEN LOIS KOCH, Ph.D. 


AND 


RIETTA SIMMONS 


University of Texas 


PuBLISHED FoR THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 


By THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW COMPANY 


PRINCETON, N. J. 
and ALBANY, N. Y. 


Acents: G. E. STECHERT & CO., Lonnon (2 Star Yard, Carey St., W. C.) 
Lerpzic (Hospital St., 10); Paris (76, rue de Rennes) 


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VII. 


VIII. 


IX. 


XI. 


TABLE OF CONTENTS 


PAGE 
eo LL CT LON ae er snr et unr uae aed aves up bate Mpaias Pata tee ate 1 
DUOTATEMENT. OF THEE ROBLEM Mis arn asi cantatas 1 
PHAN CKENOWLEDGMEN TSS. Cee Tie Wns eee 1 
THE POPULATION SAMPLES AND THE TESTS 
TES ET ice ery ant ee fonu te are ete pace rch aa) CNennes 3 
. THE ADMINISTRATION AND SCORING OF 
OD PETES Essien eet My: pobre te Niki ht atest tang. 5 
. COMPARISON OF THE GROUPS IN TERMS OF 
BD WCAG IONA LS DAL UL Ss igor: ahve te 6 
TORAGE-GRADE SOISTRIBU TIONS | te ay aieevernl site ee ae Se We 8 
2. AMOUNT OF SCHOOL EXPERIENCE FOR THE DiF- 
FERPN TH AGES CANDiUIRADES (oe wo aia iy miner as fas 
DE SORE TG) NGG) Ba i ED tay by iiss ens sepa iiatte Ne 35 
METHODS OF PRESENTING THE DATA...... a, 
PRESENTATION: VAND “ANALY SIS”"\OF “THE 
NSN DO RQ BW id God Ce ea AN on ADR te Oe 44 
1. COMPARISON OF WHITES AND MEXICANS........ 44. 
2. COMPARISON OF CiTy AND RURAL GROUPS....... 7\ 
3. COMPARISON OF CiTy WHITES AND City NeGroges. 75 
4. COMPARISON OF CiTy MEXICANS AND City NeGroges 80 
5. COMPARISON OF THE MEXICAN CoLor Groups.... 83 
6. COMPARISON OF THE NEGRO COLOR GROUPS....... 92 


CORRELATIONS: OF VLE V TES LS "WITH BACH 
OTHER AND WITH AGE AND SCHOOL 


19, G20 Od 9 MDa ON RU AP Avion Coan vera Marella tas (fe 97 
1. STATEMENT OF THE CORRELATION PROBLEMS..... 97 

2. CORRELATION OF THE PANTOMIME WITH THE 
C\TE ERT LERGTS) at ontario aeict DeLee ake ig had EODRN be 97 

3. CORRELATION OF TEST PERFORMANCE WITH AGE 
ANOS CHOOL S EXPERIENCE 345 Uke sctat wele 103 
PURINE VEEN Younes tt ONY era Sted ores ROG ata hy seerz ora 106 
TR BEE UA DY Dy CIR AA eH WEE REE ty | GRO RCN a LL 109 


Lee AAA TOO d Cara od wt BN cele Gate nr ptr APR BM on Smt CAN TB ir hipEA Ica haa 112 





I. INTRODUCTION 


1. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM.—The problem which forms 
the basis for the following work is the determination of the com- 
parative status of White, Mexican, and Negro children in respect 
to what has been called “ native ability ’ or “ general intelligence.” 
White,’ Mexican, and Negro children found in the Texas urban 
and rural schools were chosen for comparison. The aim of the 
investigation is therefore twofold: first, to make inter-racial and 
inter-national comparisons; and secondly, to compare the city- 
and rural-school populations for each race or nationality studied. 

Such an aim necessitates eight distinct comparisons: 1, the 
city White with the city Mexican; 2, the city White with the 
city Negro; 3, the city Mexican with the city Negro; 4, the city 
with the rural White; 5, the city Mexican with the rural Mexican; 
6, the city Mexican with the rural White; 7, the city Negro with 
the rural White; and 8, the city Negro with the rural Mexican. 

At the present stage of the development of intelligence testing, 
one needs to be very cautious in evaluating and interpreting test- 
score results. Our intelligence tests are apt to measure the 
influence’ of environmental factors as well as “innate abilities.” 
Health, home conditions, school attendance, interest, cultural 
traditions, etc., are determining factors in intelligence-test per- 
formance. When comparisons are to be made, furthermore, 
between different racial, national, and socio-economic groups,” 
the problem is complex indeed. There are here not only a vast 
complex of associated factors to be taken into account, but also 
the variation of these factors from group to group. 


2. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.—The data of this investigation were 
collected by the writers in connection with the Texas Educational 


‘In the White group we included only children of American parentage so as 
to obviate any possible error arising from comparing, within one group, chil- 
dren hearing and speaking different languages in the home. 

* The term “ socio-economic” is used to characterize the city-rural divisions. 


2 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


Survey. A less detailed report of the findings is published as a 
part of the entire Survey investigation. The Survey Commission 
furnished the larger part of the test material, and met the writers’ 
traveling expenses as well as the cost of scoring the tests and 
tabulating the results. This assistance the writers wish to 
acknowledge gratefully. 

The authors wish also to express their appreciation of the 
cooperation of Professor George A. Works, Director of the 
Texas Educational Survey, and of the following superintendents 
in charge of the school systems in which the data were collected: 
Mr. Jeremiah Rhodes, San Antonio; Mr. A. N. McCallum, 
Austin; Mr. A. H. Hughey, El Paso; Miss M. Louise Jones, 
Karnes County; Miss Fannie Dobie, Bee County; Mr. Leon G. 
Halden, Travis County; Miss Wilma Allen, Hays County; Mr. 
W. H. McCracken, Kleberg County; Mr. Nat Benton, Nueces 
County. 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 3 


Il. THE POPULATION SAMPLES AND THE 
CUBS boyd thet ol B 


Limitations both as to time and funds prevented the taking 

of samples from all of the cities and counties in Texas. The 
selection of territory was made, therefore, mainly with three 
points in mind: first, that we secure a fair and accurate picture 
of prevailing school conditions throughout the state; secondly, 
that the subjects be representative samples of the city- and rural- 
White, Mexican, and Negro children found in the elementary 
schools of Texas; and lastly, that the localities be near Austin, 
provided that they met the first two demands. San Antonio, 
El Paso, and Austin were chosen to furnish the city subjects; 
Karnes, Bee, Travis, Hays, Kleberg, and Neuces counties, the 
rural. 
Data were collected for the various scholastic populations 
mentioned; but since there were few Negro schools in most of 
the counties visited and, in one instance, none,—because the 
scholastic population did not warrant any—the Negro rural data 
are limited in numbers. We decided, therefore, not to include 
the rural Negro material in the present study. 

The tests employed in this investigation were four in number: 
specifically, the Myers Pantomime Intelligence Test; the National 
Intelligence Test, Scale A-Form I; the Detroit First-Grade 
Intelligence Test, Form A; and the Pintner-Cunningham Primary 
Mental Test. These tests will be described in the section dealing 
with the testing technique. No child was given more than two 
tests—the Pantomime and, in most cases, one other. Those 
children not subjected to a second test were the first-, second-, and 
certain third-grade rurals, a fifth-grade group in El Paso, and 
the pupils absent from school when the second test was given. 

As a part of an elaborate testing program conducted in San 
Antonio several weeks, and in some instances several months, 
before the Survey movement was under way, a small group of 
specially trained workers had subjected all of the elementary- 


4 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


school pupils in this city to one of the following tests: the 
National Intelligence Test, the Detroit First-Grade Intelligence 
Test, or the Pintner-Cunningham Primary Mental Test. The 
Detroit test was given to the first-graders only, the Pintner-Cun- 
ningham to the second-graders, and the National to those pupils 
in the third grade or above. 

The test records of only those pupils to whom the writers had 
administered the Pantomime test were included in the present 
study. 

The above-mentioned tests were administered before the 
February promotions, and the Pantomime test was given after 
the opening of the second semester. This fact might have resulted 
in considerable confusion in the grade classification of a pupil, 
had we not arbitrarily given him the grade ranking that was his 
when he was subjected to the Pantomime test. For example, 
though a pupil was in the high first grade when he took the 
Detroit test, he was classified as a second-grader, provided he was 
advanced in the mid-term promotions and was in the low second 
grade when the Pantomime test was administered. This pro- 
cedure operates to make the highest half-grade sample, for these 
San Antonio tests, a superior one, since it is composed only of 
pupils who have satisfactorily completed the work of the preced- 
ing half-grade. Since, furthermore, the number of retardates is 
much greater in the case of the Mexicans and Negroes than in 
the case of the Whites, the alteration in the quality of our racial 
or nationality samples is likely to influence the test scores. In the 
interpretation of the results this fact will be brought up again. 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 5 


Ii]. THE ADMINISTRATION AND SCORING OF 
THE TESTES 


In administering the tests the instructions of the respective 
authors were adhered to, and the same method of procedure was 
adopted by the two experimenters. Hence, the possibility of the 
personal equation as a determiner of divergent test-performance 
may be considered negligible. 

With two exceptions, all of the material for this study was 
collected by the writers themselves. Mr. W. A. Steigler, Pro- 
fessor of Education in Sul Ross Teachers College, Alpine, Texas, 
administered the tests in El Paso. The test results contributed 
by the San Antonio investigators constitute the other exception. 
The tests given by the writers, as well as those received from 
El Paso, were scored and checked under the writers’ supervision 
by students of the University of Texas. The tests given as a 
part of the San Antonio testing program were graded by a super- 
vised group of public-school teachers of that city, and checked 
roughly by the supervisors who collected the data included in 
this investigation. The authors are responsible for most of the 
statistical work, although the faithful service of Miss Esther 
Thompson is worthy of mention. 


6 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


IV. COMPARISON OF THE GROUPS IN TERMS OF 
EDUCATIONAL STATUS 


That an individual is the resultant of the interplay of his 
inherited equipment and the stimuli from his environment, is 
now rather generally conceded. Strictly speaking, the two 
factors are so inextricably interdependent that complete isolation 
of either for the study of its relative effect is impossible. The 
only certain way to ascertain the relative effectiveness of nature 
and nurture upon the mental development of children is by one 
of two methods of approach: first, by keeping the ancestry con- 
stant and varying the environment; or second, by keeping the 
environment constant and allowing the ancestry to vary. An 
investigation whose object it is to compare large numbers of chil- 
dren of different races and nationalities cannot strictly adhere 
to either method. The hereditary factor, to be sure, varies from 
group to group and from individual to individual. At its best, 
furthermore, the requirement of the second method of study can- 
not be equality of environmental opportunity and school training, 
but only independence of widely variable opportunities and train- 
ings. It will be obvious that our comparisons are made _ be- 
tween groups from widely diverse economic, cultural, and social 
levels, and from schools of varying types. Ina comparative study 
of the performances of different races and different nationalities, 
one needs, therefore, to be particularly cautious about attributing 
any differences in educational achievement or in intelligence-test 
reactions primarily to an innate or hereditary cause. For this 
reason, before proceeding to the presentation and discussion of 
test-score results, we have attempted to analyze our data from 
the standpoint of certain outstanding environmental differences 
between our groups. The influence of home conditions and the 
social level of the parents would certainly be factors to be con- 
sidered were our analyses complete. Such data, however, are not 
obtainable from school records, and estimates upon the part of 
the teacher would necessarily be hopelessly inaccurate. The 


7 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 













































































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8 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


migratory character of the Mexican and, in addition, the strong 
probability that the teachers’ ratings would be a function of the 
standards and traditions prevailing among the different popula- 
tions, are in themselves sufficient to indicate the impracticability 
of such estimates. 

We have, therefore, limited ourselves to a comparison in terms 
of educational status as measured by grade location. We realize 
that scholastic achievement constitutes merely one of the objective 
conditions likely to influence test performance. It might even 
be argued by some that school progress itself reflects the very 
capacity our tests are supposed to tap: namely, native intelli- 
gence. It is true that we must admit that poor achievement in psy- 
chological tests or in any other activity may be accompanied by 
inferior scholastic attainments, yet it is not necessarily the result 
of that condition. The poor accomplishment in both instances 
; may result from one and the same cause—lack of native capacity. 
To be sure, mental capacity is an important factor in pedagogical 
success; but the argument that whenever school attainments are 
meager, ability must be low, and vice versa, will always be pre- 
carious. Poor health, inadequate homes, irregular attendance, 
late school entrance, lack of incentive—these, as well as inherent 
intellectual weakness, are possible causes of slow school progress. 
We must bear in mind, furthermore, that pedagogical attainment, 
as well as proficiency in intelligence-test performance, is the 
complex resultant of the intermingling of these various training, 
economic, intellectual, and nutritional factors, and perhaps many 
others. Our analyses, therefore, are, in the main, in terms of 
gross situations rather than isolated causal factors. In our inter- 
pretations, however, we have suggested as possible influences those 
that seemed potent from our knowledge of conditions existing 
among the various populations. 


1. AGE-GRADE DistrisuTIONS.—In order to give some idea 
of the relative school standing of our different subject groups, we 
show in Tables I to IV age-grade distributions of the pupils who 
took the various tests. It must not be inferred, therefore, that 
these distributions picture the entire scholastic populations of the 


9 


A STUDY OF. THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 
































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1 
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LT SI SI VI €I rat LE Or 6 8 b speis) 
Te}O 
L aay | 








ISAL IVNOILVWN HHL HLIM GALSAS SdNOUD LOALANS SNOINVA AHL JO STidNd AHL AO SNOILNAIULSIG: AAVAD-aoy 
Il ATAVL 


10 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


localities visited. The assumption, however, that the pupils tested 
are fair samplings of the scholastic population of the racial or 
of the national group of their particular communities, seems war- 
ranted in view of the method, previously described, of their 
selection. 

Table I shows the age-grade distribution for all pupils tested. 
As will be remembered, the Pantomime test was administered 
to every pupil who had one of the second tests, as well as to a 
small group who escaped a second test. Combining all grades, 
we have a total of 594 urban-White children, 617 rural Whites, 
613 urban Negroes, 629 urban Mexicans, and 863 rural Mexi- 
cans. It will be seen from the table that comparisons of our 
groups are limited to the first five grades. This limitation is 
due to the fact that the rural Mexican rarely attends school beyond 
the fifth grade; and, in fact, fifth-graders were so scarce that 
there is the possible danger that our small sample represents a 
highly selected group of Mexicans. A sixth-grade city- and rural- 
White group and a seventh-grade rural-White group were tested 
because it was necessary to go up higher in the grades in order 
to obtain age norms equivalent to the Negro, and especially the 
Mexican groups. In order to avoid the more obvious effect of 
a selective factor, we decided to limit our comparisons mainly 
to the first four grades, and when data for higher grades are 
presented, it is mainly because the pupils of such grades fell within 
the desired age limits. 

All pupils were classified by ages in terms of years at their last 
birthday. This classification is less apt to lead to confusion and 
error, both on the part of the teacher and the child. The ages of 
our groups, then, will average six and a half, seven and a half, 
etc., respectively. “Two statements of the age of each child were 
obtained, one from the teacher and one from the child himself. 
The teacher’s statement was recorded on a special record blank 
along with other information, such as the amount of school 
experience, grade, nationality, sex, etc. This information was 
obtained by the teachers from the school records. The child’s 
statement of his age was recorded on the test blank by the child 
himself, if he could write; if not, by the examiner or an assistant. 


A STUDY. OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 11 


of 
| / iG wes 
| a 
} Y Vy, 
bey. LY, 
| VAY 


Lint CITY 





~4/ 4 
1 ua wrerernt fires Srmsayamtta de LESS 
| A MEXICANS 
) VA —— — — NEGROES 
RY Ss 
RuRAL 


AGE 


Sees aa en WA ET ES 
4 TSN WORT TE TR AA occa lhe 
/ | Fe) + 5 3 
(RADE | 


Fic. 1. Comparison of the Various Subject Groups on the Basis of Mean Age 
for the Different Grades. 


12 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


With our White groups, there was, for the most part, agree- 
ment between the two separate records; with the Negroes and 
Mexicans, however, but especially with the latter, the determina- 
tion of age constituted one of our problems. There were dis- 
crepancies between the two statements in many instances. When 
such was the case, preference was given to the teacher’s record 
unless we had further. convincing evidence supporting the child’s 
statement. 

Inspection of Tables I and II and Figure 1 reveals two phe- 
nomena of interest and importance in the field of pedagogy as 
well as of significance in the interpretation of test-score results. 
The first has reference to the tendency of the Negroes and Mexi- 
cans to distribute themselves over a greater number of scale 
intervals than do the Whites. In many instances, moreover, the 
frequencies for the Negroes and Mexicans, but especially the 
latter, are concentrated at two or three ages, thus giving multi- 
modal rather than unimodal distributions. We may bring out 
this characteristic by expressing the percentage frequencies of 
each group at different ages within one grade. For example, if 
for convenience we calculate these data for the first grade, we 
should expect to find the greatest percentage of first-graders con- 
centrated at one age, were our distribution normal. In the case 
of the city Whites, 69 per cent of the pupils are classified as 
seven years of age, and only 25 per cent of the entire first-year 
group are of the next higher age. Of the city-White group, then, 
84 per cent are under nine years of age. The rural Whites also 
show a concentration at age seven, though not so marked as the 
corresponding city group. Fifty-one per cent of the rural Whites 
fall in the seven-year interval and 19 per cent in the eight-year 
interval, 70 per cent being under nine years of age. The city 
Negroes show a similar spread over the scale; 59 per cent of 
the group are concentrated at seven years, 16 per cent at eight 
years, and therefore 75 per cent of the entire group have a 
chronological age between seven and nine. Our Mexican popu- 
lation, both city and rural, shows a wider scatter. Thirty-two 
per cent of the city Mexicans fall within the seventh-year interval, 
24 per cent within the eighth, and 20 per cent within the ninth; 


13 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 





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ISA] LIONLAG AHL HLIM GALSAY, SdNOUD LOACANS SNOIAVA HHL AO STIdNg AHL JO SNOILLNGINISIG Aavuy-s9y 


lil ATHVL 


1 SNOB HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


i.e., 76 per cent are distributed between the ages of seven and 
ten. The distribution of ages of the rural Mexicans exhibits a 
greater range than that of the corresponding city group. Thir- 
teen per cent of the total first-grade rural-Mexican population 
is recorded at age seven, 17 per cent at age eight, 16 per cent 
at age nine, 16 per cent at age ten, 9 per cent at age eleven, and 
13 per cent at age twelve. In as wide a range as five years 
(between the ages of seven and eleven) we find only 71 per 
cent of the cases, 27 per cent of the first-graders being twelve 
years or older. 

The percentage statistics cited in the preceding paragraph are 
based on pupils subjected to the Pantomime test. With the 
National test, we obtained similar relationships—namely, the 
comparative regularity in distribution of the White and Negro 
groups and the extreme scatter of the distribution of the Mexi- 
cans, particularly the rural Mexicans. 

The distributions of the pupils subjected to the Detroit and 
Pintner-Cunningham tests are presented in Tables III and IV. 
Although the number of subjects is limited, we show the dis- 
tribution tables, since we use the test-score data to supplement 
and aid in the interpretation of other results. No conclusions are 
drawn as a result of group comparisons with these two tests alone. 

Another point of interest suggested by the age-grade distribu- 
tion data is the problem of elimination of certain of the groups 
with advance in the grades. Exact comparative statistics on this 
issue were not procurable, since in the United States Census 
Report all children of Mexican ancestry are classified as White. 
Nor have we satisfactory statistical data on this matter for any 
group except the rural-Mexican. Since comparison of the various 
subject groups was the main interest of our investigation, we 
attempted to obtain records for all of the scholastics of our most 
limited group—the rural-Mexican—and to allow the size of this 
group to determine roughly the size of the other groups. We 
cannot, therefore, safely generalize as to the comparative elimina- 
tion of our groups. Our impression, however, obtained as a result 
of conferences with various school authorities, is that the.city 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 15 


Mexicans would reveal a greater amount of elimination than the 
city Whites. 

Confining our attention to the rural-Mexican group, we may 
present some evidence for the scholastic elimination with advance 
in grade. To this group we administered the Pantomime test 
throughout the first four grades; and, therefore, its grade fre- 
quencies are more nearly representative of the grade enrollment 
of the schools visited. Of the 863 tested, 473, or 55 per cent 
of the total enrollment, are in the first grade; 78, or 9 per cent, 
in the fourth; and only 26, or 3 per cent, in the fifth.’ To put 
the matter in a slightly different way, there are only 36 per cent 
as many pupils in grade two as in grade one, 66 per cent as many 
in grade three as in grade two, 68 per cent as many in grade 
four as in grade three, and in the fifth grade only 33 per cent 
aS many as in grade four. 

This marked decrease in enrollment in the second and again 
in the fifth grade cannot be attributed entirely to the factor of 
elimination from school. Scholastic retardation, undoubtedly, 
is responsible in part for the relatively large enrollment in the 
first grade. This same factor may be indirectly responsible for 
the extreme paucity of pupils in the fifth grade. For example, 
if a pupil is forced to repeat a grade or two, he has reached the 
average working age of the rural Mexican by the time he has 
completed the fourth grade, and hence withdraws from school 
and seeks a job. Other facts argue against accepting retardation 
as the sole cause. We refer to a finding to be mentioned later— 
namely, that school experience for the first-grade rural-Mexican 
does not exceed that of the other groups by a large enough 
amount. Although we have no statistics to show the proportion 
of rural Mexicans who remain in school one year only, the pre- 
ceding observation, together with the facts that the mode of the 
first-grade distribution is at twelve years and that our individual 
records show late school entrances, suggests strongly the possibility 
of early withdrawal. 

In order to compare our different subject groups with respect 


1 With the rural Mexicans, tests were administered to the first five grades. 


16 


Grade 


ee 


Low Birst.cen asieiene lc 
High Birsty face aes 
TotaiPirstiyacs wate 





Low Second......... 
High secondaice. a. 
Total Second}. ..:5 
Total Second........ 


Low Third shoes: 
Highs i bird ier 
Total Third......... 
Lotalel hird wees 


Dow Fourth git a 
HighvHourths.-c 64 
Total Fourth........ 





Low Putt 3 uc «vers 
Ue EY aap Oph a Webley AP i oy a 
"LOLab Batthsi)oys aes: 
Total Bitths erste. 


LGW DURCH sities cane 1 
High Sixth ti sche. ass 
Total Sixthm.idaier. 2 
TotalsSixth css 





Low Seventh........ 
High Seventh....... 
Total Seventh....... 
Total Seventh....... 


MOtaliirste oe 


Total Fourth........ 


HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS | 





TAE 


COMPARISONS OF THE VARIOUS SUBJECT GRO 


Mean + P.E. Mean 


.05} 8.462. 
.04) 9.73 +. 
.041 9.10+. 
741 9.724. 


.17)10.85+. 
-07)11,. 59 2-. 
-OS/ll728 Lk 9. 
.10/12.09 +. 


.06}11 
.09]13. 


.08})12 
.O7|12 
.05}12. 
.07}13 


pa ple 
Lis: 
.10}13 


M 





SOF TEL 00 ses PETG: 
.11}11.59 + .09}10. 
. 75+ .08}/10. 


1211 


GO hate) 1 


Ais) Wi me) 4 B lp Bes 
.30+.14/11. 
41+.10}/11. 





ee ee ee ew we 


si (6; 0) Biber Ols 6m 


$e eho) ore fe lel .ei8 6, w ele ye) fee) a 16 


© lain tee) 06 6 © © hehe tere 6 (ey\6 © fs 0 


ee be ace Je ein) 6,16; 0' 6 (a SV ee: ouim 6 I> 


af 6)'p. We eee ia. 6 6 ie (ey m Ve! ei ime Lb, 16) Iw 


© DUE LeV eer e'> 0. .6)) wile p> eve walt os 1 We eel eee rae) > 


COCs .@ geo. oy 0) ai &) o [m ve! ee 6) 00 a) bbl a toy wie ew 16 


a te bale wee 06! o/s tl ee me le de le el elie ew) ie: ale eee) ane 


€) 6) sy © ay es 8) euetie) | sae #6. eee Us ee 


85+.10/12.14+.25 
72 +.12|12.50+ .23 
.82+.08/12.34+.17 
.09)14.62 + .20 





Difference Between Means 
P.E. Difference of Means 


Clic po.’ PCy CeCe Ri CYR ik 
WM|WN|MN|WW/IMM|! W 
































6.08; 1.75| 3.62 
14.69| 3.67] 9.69 
12.64 3.18] 7.43} 0.121 5.171 : 
9.68} 1.49| 9.10 
19.31| 4.25] 12.05 
19.28] 4.42] 14.47] 5.001 5.40] 2 
18.23] 5.20| 8.26 
11.86| 3.82] 3.90 
20.301 6.92) 8.57| 5.64) 9.79] 1 
16.00] 8.93! 6.19 
11.31] 10.57] 1.83 
18.36] 13.70} 5.001 7.55} 8.40) 2 











—- -—- —— | —-——--- | —— 


8.50 0.03] 6.33 
9.37! 11.20 


4.69 i 
12.54 0.76| 13.05} 1.31] 3.81] 1 
4.50 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 17 


1 THE BASIS OF AGE FOR THE DIFFERENT GRADES 








Difference Between Medians 


















































Median + P.E. Median TS Sigma of Fre- 
P.E. Difference of Medians Distribution quency 
w M N c:clce cle clc:R|)C RIR R|IwimMiN 
WMIWNIMN|WWIMM|WM 
157+.07| 7.94.15] 7.59+.14|| 2.31] 0.12] 1.75] .. M : 59] .96] 1.06 
1.74+.05| 9.50+.16] 7.80+.11|| 10.35} 0.50] 8.95] .. ay ” .47| 1.06] 1.29 
1. 65+.04| 8.74+.12| 7.72+.12|| 8.38] 0.54/ 6.00) 0.02] 10.07} 2.71|| .55/ 1.11] 1.72 
M63.+.93|10.154-.08|.......... I i a x “ _. || 1.07] 2.07 
3.50 -+.21/10.85+.20| 9.04+.17|| 8.10/ 2.00] 6.96] .. i .. | 1.47] 1.69] 1.54 
3.424 .09/11.37-+.17| 8.83+.19|| 15.53; 1.95] 10.16] .. A KS -88| 1.66] 1.66 
8.44 4+.10/11.14+.14| 8.90+.13]|| 15.88] 2.87] 11.79] 3.87] 5.55| 17.11|| 1.14] 1.71] 1.60 
M6 4 .18]}12.14-.12|.5........ 4, i oy me ip De |e eA Whi 
9.50 + .08/11.75-+.13|10.18+.18]| 15.001 3.40] 7.14] .. is iy _78| 1.38] 1.80|| 62| 79] 69 
9.69 +.13]/11.50+.12/10.11+.24]| 10.051 1.55} 5.15] .. i" _. || 1.18] 1.15} 2.05]! 56] 70] 74 
9.58 +.08/11.57-+.10/10.15+.14]| 15.31] 3.56; 8.35! 4.07/ 10.29] 17.61|| 1.01| 1.51] 1.95||1181149]143 
Mt 19113 324-814) ee, ie re ef i BS 1.45) 1s75!) 9. 11071114 
0.25 +.10/12.58-+.15|11.48+.15|| 12.94] 6.83] 5.24] .. at » 98} 1.51] 1.71|| 64] 70] 92 
0.43 +.09/12.06-+.18]11.96+.15|| 8.15} 9.00] 0.43] .. yi i 92} 1.68] 1.80|| 79] 65/104 
0.36+.07/12.36 +.12/11.69+.111| 14.28] 10.23] 4.19] 5.64/ 8.28] 16.88|| .95| 1.64] 1.77/1143/135]196 
98+ .09113.85-.14|...:...... i & a * Re .. || 1.23] 1.48 128| 78 
2.29 +. 22/13.83+.12/12.38+.31|| 6.16] 0.24] 4.39] .. ys .. |} 1.15] 1.23] 1.231] 20} 76] 11 
2.17 +.14]13.65+.15/12.00+.28|| 7.40] 0.55] 5.16] .. i Ay 82} .88| 1.25|} 25! 23] 14 
2.22 +.12/13.77+.10/12.30-+.21|| 9.69] 0.33] 6.39| 0.88| 2.92] 7.82/| .98! 1.16] 1.25)| 45/ 99] 25 
ays 9114'56-+.25| ...... 2. é p) " * ry _. |} 1.31] 1.48 87| 26 
Se a (a 77 4& 
Ee Oa Os te 68 34 
ad I prc ae 4.66 75 82 
SE Tb Sate fa BN 1.03 71 
ays ee ne A + * oh Nite 3 cs a a) es Were ha 3k ane a 
; 
. € 
! 
f 
3 
: 


a a 


18 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


to their age-grade achievements, we have summarized in Table V 
the data presented in Table I. Columns 2 and 4 show, respec- 
tively, the means and medians with their probable errors, for our 
various subject groups. Column 3 shows the ratio of the differ- 
ence between the mean ages of our various groups to the prob- 
able error of the difference of these means; column 5 does like- 
wise for medians', Figure 1 gives a graphic representation of the 
mean age for the different grades of our subject groups. 

In the above table and graph we have presented data for the 
Pantomime test groups only, because we have given this test to 
more subjects than we have the others. Furthermore, we have 
included in our Pantomime test groups all of the subjects who 
took the other tests. Since, for instance, the National test is not 
to be given to subjects below the third grade, the Pantomime age 
norms for the third grade or above are, for all practical purposes, 
the same as those for the National test. 

We must not assume, however, that the ages for the different 
test groups will be identical, as it was not always possible to give 
the two tests to the same subject groups. To take an instance 
from the rural situation, certain third-grade pupils were found 
who were unable to understand enough English to comprehend 
the directions of the National test. When such linguistic handi- 
caps were obvious, particular individuals, or, if necessary, entire 
school groups, were excluded from the examination. Again, in 
some of the rural schools visited there were only a few pupils 
who had advanced beyond the second grade, and the pressure for 
time did not permit the giving of the tests to so few. Occasion- 

* These ratios serve as indices of reliability, and from them we can express 
the degree of the probability of a real difference between the two groups, 1.e., 
the chances of finding a difference in the same direction as the obtained one, 
were we to repeat the measurements with an infinite number of subjects. 
Thus, if the difference is once its probable error, there is 1 chance in 4 for 
reversal or, in other words, 3 chances to 1 that the difference is real. When 
the difference is twice its probable error, the chances are 9 to 1 that the true 
difference is in the same direction; if the difference is three times its probable 
error, the chances are 46 to 1; if four times, the chances are 284 to 1. (See 
Thorndike, E. L., Mental and Social Measurements, 1919.) 


When the quotient is as large as 4, the difference is considered statistically 
reliable, although some authors regard even 3 as a significant difference. 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 19° 


ally, also, we found a school where there were some fourth- 
graders but no third- or fifth-grade children, and vice versa. Such 
irregularities as these made it impossible to keep exactly the same 
personnel in our various test groups. Although the number and 
identity of the cases in the grades varied somewhat with the 
different tests, the mean and median ages for the different grades 
varied so little that the difference may be considered negligible, 
and consequently the data are not shown separately. 

The extreme diversity of our groups as to the average age for 
the grades surveyed may be revealed by showing the percentage 
of one group that reaches the mean of another group in a grade- 
‘for-grade comparison. Such data may be easily calculated by 
using Table V, which gives the grade means for the respective 
groups, and Table I, which gives the entire age-grade distribution. 
Table VI shows these data for the four grades separately, as well 
as the average of the combined grades. 

Comparison of White and Mexican Groups. Examination of 
Table V reveals the fact that our group differences are in the 
same direction whether we calculate them on the basis of the 
means or medians. With the former the differences are accentu- 
ated in some cases because of the fact that the mean takes full 
account of the extremes of the distribution, while the median is 
less affected by the unusually large or small values. To take a 
particular instance for illustration, the median age for the first- 
grade city Mexicans is 8.74 years, while the mean age is 9.10 
years. The mean and median for the corresponding White 
group, on the other hand, differ little in magnitude. Correspond- 
ing to this divergence between the two central tendencies for the 
Mexican group, we find the scatter of the distribution (see Table 
I) and, likewise, the sigma to be larger than that for the Whites. 
The Mexican distribution extends from age seven through age 
fourteen, while the range of the city Whites is from six through 
nine years. As the comparison of our two averages indicates, 
the Mexican distribution is weighted at the high end. 

The comparison of Whites and Mexicans, of both city and 
rural groups, on the basis of age for a given grade, shows the 
White group, whether urban or rural, to be younger than the 


20 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


corresponding Mexican group. The consistent superiority of the 
White groups in every grade comparison, together with the fact 
that the reliability quotients range from 8.38 to 20.30 for the 
city Whites and from 2.89 to 20.43 for the rural Whites, indi- 
cates that the difference between the groups is statistically reliable. 
The data of Table VI which shows the amount of overlapping 


TABLE VI 


GRADE COMPARISONS OF THE VARIOUS SUBJECT GROUPS ON THE BASIS OF THE PER CENT OF ONE 
ROUP EXCEEDING THE MEAN AGE OF ANOTHER—PANTOMIME TEST 


Grade 
Comparison Av. Total 


First |Second| Third |Fourth 






























































Per cent of CM Reaching Mean of CW............. 22.6 6.5 6.3 | 11.2 BIA 
Per cent of CN Reaching Mean of CW.. RRR TEA oh 48.3 M7 AAT 2 2a0e 1 a0) 4 hy 
Per cent of CN Reaching Meaniof CMS. trol) || 91.7 (114.3 | 72.6 | 64.5 || 83.3 
Per cent of RW Reaching Mean of CW.............|| 53.8 | 35.4 | 35.9 | 30.6 || 38.9 
Per cent of RM Reaching Mean of CM.............|| 32.6 | 36.1 | 22.0 | 21.2 || 28.0 











Per cent of RM Reaching Mean of RW............. FUSS Dae 8.0 6.3 8.0 


among the groups serve further to indicate the marked superiority 
of the White over our Mexican groups. With regard to the city 
groups, about 88 per cent of the Whites surpass, on an average, 
the means of the comparable Mexican group; about 92 per cent 
of the rural Whites excel, on the average, the means of the rural 
Mexicans. Or to put the results in a more striking form, 19 per 
cent of the first-grade city Mexicans surpass in age the mean of 
the fourth-grade city Whites; whereas 35.7 per cent of the rural 
first-grade Mexicans surpass in age the mean of the rural fourth- 
grade Whites. Not only does a certain percentage of the first- 
grade city and rural Mexican distributions surpass the central 
tendencies of the corresponding White groups of the fourth 
grade, but also 29 (6.1 per cent) rural Mexicans are older than 
the oldest fourth-grade rural Whites. 

Concerning the variability of the groups being compared, the 
Mexicans, whether they be the city or rural samples, are, in the 
grade comparisons, consistently more variable than the corre- 
sponding White groups. 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE, OF CHILDREN 21 


Comparison of White and Negro Groups. The mean age- 
grade achievement of the city Whites is less than that of the city 
Negroes in every instance except in the low-fifth grade, where 
the means are practically identical. The medians, likewise, show 
a superiority on the part of the Whites with two exceptions where 
the differences, though in favor of the Negroes, are so small that 
they may be considered negligible. It will be noticed, however, 
that our group differences are smaller for each grade than they 
were in the White-Mexican comparisons. Nevertheless, with 
the exception of the fifth grade, the reliability quotients are large 
enough to be significant. This diminished intergroup divergence 
in the fifth grade is very likely due to a selective factor operative 
in the case of the fifth-grade Negroes: namely, a dropping out of 
school of the older and retarded Negroes.’ The results in Table 
VI, likewise, indicate a lesser degree of overlapping: 39.38 per 
cent of the city Negroes on an average reach the mean of the city 
Whites of equal grades. ‘The age-grade achievement of the city 
Negro resembles more closely the rural-White group than that of 
the corresponding city sample. 

Other investigators, among whom may be mentioned Mayo,” 
Phillips,’ Ferguson,* and Peterson,’ also found that the Negro 
children tested by them were appreciably older than White chil- 
dren of the same school grade. School censuses indicate the 
same fact. 

Comparing the two groups in terms of variability, the sigma of 
the Negro distribution is larger, grade for grade, than is the 
sigma of the corresponding White distribution. If we turn back 
to the age-grade distribution chart (Table I), it will be seen that 
the older Negroes distribute themselves, for all grades compared, 

The first four grades, it should be remembered, represent a truer sample 
of our various groups. 

*M. J. Mayo. “The Mental Capacity of the American Negro.” Archiv. of 
Psychol., No. 28, 1913. 

°B. A. Puiuurps. “ Retardation in the Elementary Schools of Philadelphia.” 
Psychol. Clinic, 6 (1912), 79-90, 107-121. 

“G. O. Fercuson. “The Psychology of the Negro.” Archiv. of Psychol., 
No. 36, 1916. 


5 J. Pererson. ‘“ The Comparative Abilities of White and Negro Children.” 
Comp. Psychol. Monographs, 1 (1922-23). 


22 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


over a greater range than do the Whites. In the first two grades, 
moreover, the Negro range surpasses that of the White at the 
lower as well as the upper end of the scale. In variability, also, 
the Negroes show more resemblance to the rural Whites, though 
still consistently more variable. 

Comparison of City and Rural Groups of Like Race.or Nation- 
ality. The city Whites and the city Mexicans are younger than 
their respective rural groups in each grade comparison. That this 
indicated diversity is reliable is suggested both by the consistency 
of the tendency and the magnitude of the reliability quotients. 
In the case of the Whites, the reliability quotient ranges from .02 
to 7.55, with a mean of 3.61; for the Mexicans, the quotient 
ranges from 2.92 to 10.29, with a mean at 6.97. Turning again 
to Table VI, we see that only 27.98 per cent of the rural Mexicans 
reach the mean of the rural Whites, but that 38.93 per cent of 
the rural Whites reach the mean of the city Whites. The vast 
overlapping in ages of the two Mexican populations is emphasized 
by the fact that 22.2 per cent of first-grade rural Mexicans are 
older than the mean age of fourth-grade city Mexicans. Expressed 
in other words, a certain percentage of the older rural first- 
graders overlaps the older fourth-grade city sample. 

Compared in terms of variability, the rural Whites show a 
. larger sigma than do the city Whites, and this is true for every 
gerade. The rural-Mexican group is more variable than its 
corresponding urban group with the single exception of the 
fourth grade. 

Comparison of Mexicans and Negroes. ‘The city Mexicans 
are older than the city Negroes in the grade-for-grade comparison, 
whether we measure the central tendency in terms of means or 
medians. The reliability quotients are large enough to indicate 
significant differences, the mean quotient being 4.65. Since the 
city Mexicans are older for their grades than are the city 
Negroes, and since the rural Mexicans surpass the city Mexicans 
in age-grade attainment, it is evident that the rural Mexicans are 
considerably older for a given grade than are the city Negroes. 
The standard deviation of the Negro distribution is greater than 
that of the city-Mexican in all but one grade. 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 23 


An explanation of the facts revealed in the analysis of Table 
VI is not easy. Even limiting the discussion to one group at a 
time, the complexity of the situation prevents interpretation in 
terms of a single causal factor. Five factors, at least, viz., late 
school entrance, early elimination, irregular attendance, short 
school term, and pedagogical retardation, must be taken into con- 
sideration. The Mexican groups have all five handicaps to con- 
tend with; and the combination and interaction of these factors 
no doubt account for their advanced age throughout the grades. 

The high variability of the Mexican and Negro groups, as 
compared with the White, is a further indication of the com- 
plexity brought about by the prevailing socio-economic condition 
for certain of our populations. The fact that the high variability 
of the rural-Mexican group is most marked in the first grade, 
together with the analysis of the first-grade distribution (Table 
I), suggests that, at least in the case of the rural Mexican, late 
school entrance is an important retarding factor. The standard 
deviation of the Negro distribution, on the other hand, is large 
for all of the grades except the fifth, where the cases are few and 
unrepresentative. This fact, together with the data of the age- 
grade distribution chart, eliminates the factor of late school 
entrance as a cause of the high variability. The situation in the 
Negro group is more likely due to the operation of the factors of 
pedagogical retardation and irregular attendance or, perhaps, to 
still other unmentioned factors. 


2. AMOUNT OF SCHOOL EXPERIENCE FOR THE DIFFERENT 
AGES AND GRADES.—An analysis of the school experience of our 
groups will throw further light upon the problem of environ- 
mental differences. To be sure, just as the age attainment for 
a particular grade is in large part a resultant of mental ability, so 
also is the amount of school experience that is acquired dependent 
upon native endowment. Thus, with all other conditions equal, 
in a comparison of two races or nationalities, that one showing 
the greater amount of school experience for a particular grade 
may be considered the less intelligent. With our groups, how- 
ever, we cannot assume equality of conditions; yet, on the other 


24 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


ods 4) fee ee 9 0d © cj ele's 


9 pe spite) it opera fausae ote Cc 
AN Sa R 


ele we a es) 64) ec 8) ie. 6) em 


TABLE 


COMPARISONS OF THE VARIOUS SUBJECT GROUPS ON THE BaAsiIS 


Mean -t P.E. Mean 





M N 





aaha ecuenateee 8.394 .50 








5.97+.32| 6.45+.44) 7.78+.41 
932022 3615.84 SG) ini 








15.71 +.49/11.152.59|16.76+.57 
14.09 + .57)| 8402.39}. 0... 


24.70+.37|15.57+ .64/22.23 + .67 
23) 30ck GOT AP eh SGL Se ee 





30.91 + .41|22.19+.58/23.97 + .84 
26/93 A SVTSPSU se G2le 0s | la ee 





38.90 + .74/23.78 + .78/31.91 4.77 
SocLO eZ GLAS ee Bink 








46.60 + .92/22 .05 + .97/31.94+1.12 
ST. 57 te 771666 74) a a a 


50.03 +1 .36/27.91 +1.15|37.92 +1.41 
42.7641.01/21 362 .76)......0.0. 





a Bl euente '6\ ene Va 





22.13 +2 .06/36.79 +1.97 


48 62 +1.67/24.6641.05].......... 





i 


Cyc 
WwM 











14.00 





18.32 





12.43 


Difference Between Means 


P.E. Difference of Means 





Gr Ci Cue PCr, 


“R|R R 
WN|I|MN|WW|MM;|;WM 





3.49| 2.22] 6.73 











C 





1.09) 6.59 


1.40/ 6.84] 2.16] 3.871 8.37 








7.46| 1.72| 5.68! 9.86] 15.62 











6.53] 7.46] 5.92) 6.66) 15.78 








10.11] 6.68)". 7:52 








6.18] 5.50| 4.28] 3.85] 16.98. 


——_— eS | 


























4.42] 19.54 - 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 25 

















e V-IT 
oF SCHOOL EXPERIENCE (IN MONTHS) FOR THE DIFFERENT AGES 





Difference Between Medians 





Median + PE. Median Sigma of Fre- 


P.E. Difference of Medians Distribution quency 


ee ee 


w M N CC) CoGrcruCc Or R VP CaR vy RR 
WM|WNIMN|WW{|MM|WM 


Ww M N ||} Wi/M|N 








BAe Lis os) -! o3sfa 5s 7.00+.74 FA is ae be i. ay ane Leite l ONT Paley mes 








6.04+.40) 5.50+.55) 5.50+4.51)| 0.78) 0.83! 0.00) 2.95 1.03 4.82|| 4.80) 4.25) 5.80]/103) 42) 93 
Mee eA5 4. 77 45) fo. of oh a Ae of 4, 4.00} 4.01] .. 57| 57 











——$—— } | —_— | —— — |] — | | —_—_ | ——_— | ——— 


16.004 .61/11.50+.74]15.70+.71 4.69} 0.32) 4.12) 1.02} 5.06} 9.36]) 7.18) 5.68) 7.62]| 98) 42 81 
— :15.05+.71 DOE AON ee aa 4p 6 a es ae 1 3,92) 5.26) ¥.). 43] 82 














25.00 + .46)15.25 + .81/20.96 + .85]) 10.48) 4.21 4.88 0.90} 4.86) 14.99]| 6.01} 7.27] 8.89}|122) 58) 79 
me 29+ .65/10.05+-.70].......... oye ae bg St o. a G58 7 SOP: 731. 91 


SE ee 





EES ee ee ee | eee ee ee SSS 





33.05 + .52123 .50 +.73/26.50+1.05! 10.73} 5.60| 2.341 6.65] 10.75] 14.48]| 5.87] 8.13]10.53]| 92] 88] 72 
e720 4 .71|12.00-.78].......... H a ~ Bi Re 2 7.331 9.66] .. || 76/110 


——— | —— ef | ef fl | Lf | | | 





39.00 + 93123.77 + .98/31.75-+.96|| 11.28 5.45| 5.821 4.65} 6.30] 13.47|| 9.04] 9.79] 9.45/] 63| 71/ 69 
92300 +-.90/15.08-+-.981.......... a oy be vi i ‘e 9.07]}10.65|  .. || 72] 85 


Se eee eee SS ee ee ee ee |) eS EE ey ee ee) | Pe ee) 





"-49.75-41.15]23.10 +1.22|32.44 41.41 15; 36)) 9°51 5.02 7.33} 4.23) 16.63]/10.78)10.65)11.54}| 63} 55} 48 
a5. 75 4-.96/16.63+..93).......... eh ae fr i ae ae ate roar b ioty-4 OM bie 59|106 








— | ——_————_— —_—_ —_ —— 











; 52.00 + 1.70}28.00 +1.44/34.75+1.77|| 10.76} 7.04 2.96 4.01] 4.94) 15.19)/11.40)11.58/12.01}| 32} 46] 33 
943.50 4-1.26/19.503-.95].......... a a oy ay) 4s Vv 11.25]11.62] .. 57|106 


ne fa | pans Ym ae fa ee | | | — | | | | | | | | 











a 19.00+2.58/32.88+2.46]|  .. 3.90| .. 0.99] 12.40]; .. |12.21]12.01]] ..| 16] 17 
Me? 50-+-2.09121.88 1.32]... 22.8. be li, a ey OR epee Sh eto2T | chet SOBs 
re Sy Wai an see Aas Rn | ALBIN Ra syria wie oh 


A { 
ES ees Bees haat ” a a et | bs | a YSPS Bah iv. TR tag 


26 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


TABLE 
COMPARISONS OF THE VARIOUS SUBJECT GROUPS ON THE 








Difference Between Means 


Mean + P.E. Mean —— 
P.E. Difference of Means 

























































Grade oti Dea CE oe U5. TY 
Oe BREE RAPAES =. 

Do wakirets siete vat dunt C|| 4,134.34] 6,564.48] 3.474.25|| 4.19] 1.65] 5.72 

High’ Hirsten ii y ales ete Cl] 6.52+.24110.364.44| 7.744.33|| 7.68] 3.05| 4.76 Pee Re Ik» 
Total First.................Cl| 5.23.22] 8.384.35| 6.29+.27|| 7.68} 3.03] 4.86] 7.94) 0.15] 1.55 
Total Firstiy iti ae a R|| 9,204.45] 8.444.21].......... ODay [eet eae 

Low Second haoisiivewvner C}/12.61+.56]16.29+ .43/14.27+4.53 5.26 1.86 2.97 

High! Second ey ul eta Mea c|l16.02 +.19/22.55+.90/12.99+.29|| 7.10] 8.66] 10.17 i OS wh 
Motal Seconds k ina is! C||14.79 +.26|20.03 + .58/13.68-+.32|| 12.78] 2.71| 9.62] 5.41] 3.21] 0.33) 
(Ota Secon. gait eoo recat tte Rjj17.82+.49118.094.49].......... Bis otal Ms shad Pera hs 
Lowmathinds ee uartn. iia C|l23.45-+.34|25.52-4.53/22.334.42|| 3.34] 2.07) 4.69 ; 
High Third seh eickar ke: C|l28.59 +.66|27.08 +.57/27.76+.67|| 1.73] 0.88] 0.77 Awe ye, 
TOEAL Thirds) ae ue eee C\l25.89 + .39125.79 + .39125.29+.38|| 0.18] 1.11] 0.92| 0.86] 2.61/ 2.007 
TGtALAT Hird Wea fs Wea: R|l25.39-+.44123.834.65].......... a Peer paibar 4 

Low, Fourth) uae eke bs, Pad cy wiry WE MOR sy fy OIA Va 31.294.66||'.. | 0.30 

High Fourth............... Glas Se er4ash enews $4.02+.40|| .. | 1.06 

Total Fourth wu eit Clo 32 seh ro 33.11+.40 1.46 2.83 0.99 
Total, Fourth ues R|/30.68 +. 46|30.27+.86].......... vt i 

Lge BEER eae Liston le ik GiaMosee ag tae 45.2342.33 0.11 

FUph Bilt nleee tee ae Cl45 20214914) 0/0) be 50.86 -+1.10 3.01 
eWotal Fifth wv oue days yn Chaba O6h. Fok ih, 48.38-+1.25 2.06 6.46 1.36 
Total Pitttai ay. ste aly R||37.65-- .65134.56+2.18).......... Mn oad tie g 
Low Sixth sie an esas eo | ESE YM EMO a Pt SU : 
Tigh Sivth yee ans ral eer RM Mn NA MP a é 
Total Sixthias uc auorenwes CHA6.96 cis BAU Ra N retain 2.26 ‘ 
otal Sixth oui was ce nh BAA 26 2th Ae ar ata v4 is 
pak veshnin | lata bid chancel aa sb LES a a 
LOW DEVENCH Ye acnicts cee Sct dare rule L'Wat ae 2 Rt Pe ay a ee 7 
High Seventh ouhaataoe eee Cre i ee Ate al ae, iM ee a ee ‘fs i 
otal Seventh! 21.25, CHa ice gtk! Gia AL eaten OT at ee RP + fe 
Total’ Seventh. a9 i sine cyte kt Oe 24 se OST rk ee ated eae te rhe o) 

s, 





See ae 


















VIII 
BASIS OF SCHOOL EXPERIENCE FOR 





Median + P.E. Median 





M N 





43| 5.444.60| 2.624.31 
-30|10.50-+.55| 5.81-+.42 
.28| 7.33-+.43| 5.29+.33 
.56| 7.31-+.26 


.71)16.75+.54/14.08 + .67 
.24/21.00+1.12}11.09+.37 
.33}18.40+.72|13.00+.40 
.61)17.83 4.62 


53 
84 
47 


.43/27.14+.66|20.22+. 
.82/25.75+.71/27.00+. 
.49|/26 .00 + .48/23.00+. 
.56/22.50+.81 





Oe O29, 1b, ule Oh ae 


Sine ts 0 18), 9) M's 


& Pies lw wile wend 








ata) & whe ve Le” ope) = 


Ol ce fen One eet 


31.33 42.65 


39.50 + .82 





Sh Giidl d Oi 60) eso! |le)etel #-%,0ne . o's 


Mee tw 6 © pire <'| C1e5s 9. eee 0 «te 


Phe Te aniO! @ wie 6: ef), 0 1q.0 @ io. © ©, .0. “06 


o 6 9 54 © ‘connie I~ efmne 6.0 Ro © « 


THE DIFFERENT GRADES 


Difference Between Medians 





P.E. Difference of Medians 


1 























cclcec|lc cic Ric RIRR 
WM|WNIMN|IWWIMM!|WM 
4.16] 0.40] 4.12 

8.22! 0.79] 6.80 

4.90| 1.07| 3.78! 4.45] 0.041 0.45 
6.67| 3.37] 3.10 

4.42| 10.82] 8.40 


3.48| 5.10| 6.58! 0.01! 0.60] 2.52 








5.83) 3.48} 8.24 
1.42| 2.48] 1.14 
1.15| 3.26] 4.48 


0.30} 3.72) 2.55 





ee | | | J 


2.95 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN «, 


Sigma of 
Distribution 
WwW M N 


3.72 
2.58 
3.38] 5.81 
5.80] 6.27 


3.83 
Ser Re, 


2.28 


4.95) 4.30 
2.20/10.43 
3.82| 8.87 
5.97) 9.09 


3.90 
Chal 


5.09 
5.05 
6.24) 5.05 
G39) Bue 


—— | —— __ | —_—_— 


8.01 
5.48 
7.28 


6.14 
6.29 
6.33 
6.73|11.06 


11.41 
6.12 
9.28 


7.35 
11.02 

9.57 

8.06|15.70 


8.00 
14.30 
11.16 

9.66 


27 








Fre- 
quency 


W/iM|N 
54] 64 
52| 64 
106/128 
77/411 


39 
76 





35} 46 
62| 62 
97/108 
68!156 


60| 42) 58 
54| 36] 70 
114} 78}128 
94/103 


—— | —— | —_— 


63 67 
78 85 
141) ..|152 


97) 75 


68| 25 


29 


28 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


hand, we must not overlook the possibility of innate capacity 
being a cause of the diversity in school-experience records. 

In the preceding section we have shown that our groups differ 
in their age-grade attainments. For this reason separate age and 
grade comparisons seem advisable. When the school-experience 
data are compared by ages, the White pupils will be of the higher 
school grade; when the data are compared by grades, the Mex- 
icans and Negroes will be of greater age. In the former case, 
any possible advantage will be on the side of the Whites, since 
they are younger for their respective grades; in the latter case, it 
will be on the side of the Mexicans and Negroes, since in the > 
grade comparisons these groups are favored by their greater age 
for a given grade. Accordingly, we have asked ourselves the 
questions as to how our samples differ on the basis of school 
experience for each age and for each grade included in the inves- 
tigation. Tables V and VI show, respectively, the amounts of 
school experience of our groups, recorded in months, for the 
various ages and grades. 

Again, our calculations are based on the records of subjects 
who took the Pantomime test. With the National test, the 
school experience of certain groups, calculated on the basis of 
age, will average a little higher. This applies particularly to the 
rural-Mexican groups. It will be remembered that, in discussing 
an earlier table, mention was made of the fact that in some of 
the rural-Mexican schools the National test could not be given 
because of a linguistic handicap on the part of the third- and some- 
times even fourth-graders. For this reason, there was a certain 
amount of selection in the rural-Mexican groups to whom the 
National tests were administered, thus tending on the whole to 
favor these groups. 

. Comparison of White and Mexican Groups. In the age com- 
parisons the city Mexican has, with the single exception of age 
seven, less school experience than the city White. The rural 
Mexican also has less school experience than the rural White, 
and this is true for each age. Furthermore, the discrepancy 
between the groups, whether we consider the urban or rural sam- 
ples, tends to increase with advance in age. That these differ- 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 29 


ences are Statistically significant is indicated by the fact that in 
both the city and rural comparisons, the reliability quotients are, 
with one exception for age seven, greater than four. This is 
true whether our calculations are based on the means or medians. 
Our grade comparisons, of either urban or rural subjects, reveal 
less pronounced and less consistent differences than do the age 
comparisons. For example, the city Mexican has slightly more 
experience than the city White in the first two grades, whereas 
there is practical equality in the third; the rural White, on the 
other hand, surpasses by a small amount its respective urban 
group in the first two grades but falls below in the others. 

The superiority of the White over its corresponding Mexican 
group may be shown in another way. Upon the assumption that 
our distributions are approximately normal, we may express the 
ratio of the mean differences between the groups to the probable 
error of the distribution of either group, and, by the aid of a 
probability table,* calculate the percentage of one group equaling 
or surpassing the mean of the other. Selecting the age at which 
the school-experience divergence for the two groups is greatest— 
namely, age twelve—we find that 98.81 per cent of the city 
Whites surpass the means of the corresponding Mexican group, 
and 84.41 per cent of the rural Whites are superior in school 
experience to the rural Mexicans. 

Even at age eight, where the intergroup comparison shows a 
smaller difference than in the later years, 79.91 per cent of the 
city Whites surpass the mean of the city Mexicans, and 84.41 
per cent of the rural Whites surpass the mean of the correspond- 
ing Mexican sample. 

The results of the grade comparisons, though less striking than 
those of age, reveal a reversed relationship. Calculating for the 
grade showing the greatest difference between the groups, grade 
two, we find that 71.68 per cent of the city Mexicans have been 
in school a greater number of months than have the city Whites. 
Grade three shows practically no group divergence, while the first 


1See H. O. Rucc, Statistical Methods Applied to Education (Boston, 1917), 
p. 391. If there is no difference between two groups, 50 per cent of one group 
will surpass the mean of the other. 


30 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


grade favors the city Whites. The rural White, however, excels 
the rural Mexican in school experience in the three grades. 

The age-by-age variability comparisons show higher sigmas 
for the city Mexicans in four out of seven possibilities, and the 
grade comparisons likewise show greater variability in two out 
of three possibilities. The rural Mexican has a higher sigma in 
six out of eight age possibilities, and in the five grades admitting 
of comparison. ) 

Comparison of Whites and Negroes. Observation of Table 
VII indicates that the direction of the difference between the 
White and Negro groups in amount of school experience for the 
different ages varies, depending upon whether we base our calcu- 
lations on the means or medians. With the medians, the Whites 
excel at every age; with the means, however, there are two 
exceptions, namely, ages seven and eight. This lack of agree- 
ment between the two measures is probably to be accounted for 
by a few cases of Negroes who entered school comparatively 
early. It will be remembered that Table I showed a greater 
number of five- and six-year-old Negroes than Whites. If we 
omit the first two years, however, the reliability quotients range 
between 3.21 and 10.11 and thus indicate significant differences. 
For the first two years, however, the ratios are positive, but too 
small to be statistically reliable when calculated on the basis of 
the median differences; they are negative, though small, when 
calculated on the basis of the mean differences. 

The grade-by-grade comparison reveals no consistent superi- 
ority of either group, whether we use the mean or the median as 
a measure of central tendency. ‘The reliability quotients, whether 
positive or negative, are, for the most part, smaller than three, and 
hence have little statistical reliability. 

With respect to variability, the intergroup comparisons show 
a consistent tendency, the Negroes exhibiting the larger sigmas 
for each age and for each grade. 

Comparison of City and Rural Groups of Like Race or Nation- 
ality. With the exception of age seven, the rural Whites have 
less school experience for each age than have the city Whites, 
whether we base our generalization on the mean or median differ- 


A STUDY OF THE TEST: PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN \V31 


ences. The reliability quotient ranges from .90 to 7.52, being 
larger than 4.0 in eleven out of fourteen possibilities. The grade 
comparisons, on the other hand, reveal no consistent superiority 
of one group over the other, and the reliability quotients are 
conspicuously smaller than those of the age comparisons. 

If we compare the two groups in variability, we again find that 
the same generalization does not hold for the two standards of 
measurement—namely, age and grade. In the age comparisons, 
the city Whites are more variable at four age levels, the rural 
Whites at three; whereas in the grade comparisons the rural 
Whites are consistently more variable. 

The city Mexicans surpass the rural Mexicans in amount of 
school experience in the age-for-age comparisons with one excep- 
tion—in the case of the median comparison for age seven. The 
reliability quotients range from 1.03 to 10.75 for the ages of 
seven to fourteen, and are greater than three at all but the seventh 
year. Again, the grade differences are smaller and are not con- 
sistently in the same direction. It is significant to note, also, that 
in both the age and grade comparisons there is a greater diversity 
between the city Whites and city Mexicans than between the city 
and rural samples of the Mexican populations. 

The sigmas of the city-Mexican distribution are slightly less 
than those of the rural-Mexican for ages seven and eight, but for 
the older ages the relationship is reversed. In the grade com- 
parisons the rural Mexicans show larger sigmas throughout. 

Comparison of Mexican and Negro Groups. The age-for-age 
comparison shows the Negro to be consistently older than the city 
Mexican with the exception of age seven, where the median 
scores are identical. The reliability quotients range from O to 
7.46, with a central tendency between 4.0 and 5.0. Although 
the quotients are not large enough at certain age levels to be 
statistically reliable, the consistency of the tendency, together with 
the marked diversity at a few age levels, adds significance to the 
results. The grade comparisons, on the other hand, reveal larger 
school-attendance records for the Mexican group; and in five out 
of six possibilities the reliability quotients are greater than three. 
If we compare the two groups in terms of variability, it will be 


32 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS | 


seen that the sigmas of the Negro distributions are the higher in 
six out of eight age comparisons, but in only one out of three 
grade comparisons. 

In the analysis of our school-experience data certain relation- 
ships seem stable enough to admit of generalization. In other 
instances the evidence is contradictory, and without further data 
final statements are inadvisable. The interpretations offered are 
also tentative, as we realize that the possibilities of causal factors 
are infinite, whereas we suggest only a few which themselves are 
complex and perhaps resultants of the interplay of innumerable 
other factors. 

As a first point worthy of consideration we have the fact that 
certain groups—namely, the Negro, but more particularly the 
Mexican—have considerably less school experience than the cor- 
responding White group, provided this comparison is made on 
the basis of school experience at successive age levels. The 
amount of agreement between the two factors of age and school 
experience for the various subject groups may be shown in 
another way—namely, by the use of a correlation method. For 
the city groups the correlations between age and school experience 
are :90 03 for athe, iW Wihites;:209 Ob or the Nes roecwudad 
49+ .02 for the Mexicans; for the rural groups, the correlations 
are .71+.02 for the Whites, and .48+.02 for the Mexicans. 
This method of approach, it may be seen, reveals the same general 
fact—the superiority of the White over the Mexican and Negro 
groups, as well as of the city over the corresponding rural groups. 

Although the city Mexican and Negro have spent less time in 
school than urban-White children when compared in terms of 
age, and the rural groups less than their respective city samples, 
nevertheless a grade comparison would not necessarily reveal the 
same tendency. The groups mentioned above as inferior in school 
experience, it will be remembered, are also the older for their 
grades. This factor of age retardation, if operative alone, might 
be expected to increase the size of the school-experience records 
of all of the over-age groups. Thus, if all other conditions were 
equal, and we were to compare different subject groups of the 
same age and in the same grade, our ‘differences would be consid- 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN — 33 


erably greater. The city Mexican serves to illustrate the effect 
of this tendency. However, with certain of our grade groups, 
other factors acting along with this one, tend to work toward an 
opposite result—namely, to reduce the school-experience records. 
We refer to such factors as short school term, failure to maintain 
strict enforcement of the attendance laws, late school entrance, etc. 

That superior educational advantages, other than those per- 
taining directly to instruction, accompany the larger and better 
organized school systems, cannot be doubted. The fact that the 
differences between the city Whites and city Mexicans are larger 
than those between the same races in the rural localities might be 
interpreted in terms of a diversity in school systems. The city 
Mexican attends a school that maintains the same, or nearly the 
same, standards as the city-White school and that also offers the 
same length of school term. Therefore, it is not surprising to 
find that the city-Mexican children require more school experience 
than the city-White in order to reach the latter’s higher standard. 
Our rural-Mexican subjects, on the other hand, have been drawn 
from a variety of school systems of different degrees of organiza- 
tion. It is safe to say, however, that, as a whole, the rural- 
Mexican schools fall far below the standards of the city-White 
schools and, in most instances, are even inferior to those of the 
rural Whites. Besides a short school term, the rural Mexican is 
kept out of school for varied and sundry reasons. Therefore, 
because in the grade comparisons the amount of school experience 
of the rural Mexican does not differ greatly from that of the rural 
White, and, in fact, is less in two out of three comparisons, we 
cannot interpret this to mean that the rural Mexican requires 
comparatively less schooling; it means rather that he is getting 
less. 

At this point it seems apropos to comment upon certain aspects 
of the school situation of the rural Mexican, because they are 
believed to play a role in the interpretation of the results of this 
investigation. The majority of the rural-Mexican schools visited 
were housed in rather dilapidated one-room frame buildings—a 
discarded church or country store being occupied in many instances 
—so situated that in rainy weather the condition of the roads 


34 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


! 


made them inaccessible. Other conditions also detrimental to 
pedagogical advancement have been suggested from time to time 
in our discussions. We refer to such factors as the short school 
term—a three-months session being not uncommon—and the 
frequent absence from school to pick cotton, spinach, or engage 
in other farm labors. | Indeed, after the first few days of this 
investigation the writers were no longer discouraged if they 
found, after traveling two hours or more, only as many as ten or 
twelve rural Mexicans in a school of supposedly considerable size. 
As mentioned in the various interpretations of our findings, other 
of our subject groups also contend with certain of these handi- 
caps; but the situation for the rural Mexican is extreme in degree. 

Inequality of environmental opportunities might again be 
offered for an interpretation of the diverse way in which the age 
and grade standards influence the variability of the school-experi- 
ence records of our subject groups. But at this point it is only 
fair for us to reiterate, as another possibility, the interpretation 
advanced by the staunch upholders of heredity—namely, that these 
phenomena are merely reflections of the condition we are trying 
to investigate, mental ability. 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN _ 35 


V. DESCRIPTION OF THE TESTS 


The tests employed in our investigation may be compared, 
among other ways, on the basis of the extent to which they 
involve verbal language. The Myers Pantomime Intelligence 
test 1s a distinctly non-verbal test and, hence, is well adapted for 
use among foreign groups. Not only is it a pictorial test, involv- 
ing neither writing nor reading, but the directions are given very 
largely by means of non-vocal gestures, and the children are pro- 
vided the opportunity of practicing on from three to six examples 
of each general problem type before essaying the sub-tests proper. 
Each one of the practice examples is checked carefully by the 
experimenter, and the erring child is redirected as well as informed 
of his error. The very limited number of oral commands which 
seemed to be necessary to effect uniformity in the general reaction 
of the pupils—commands such as “Stop,” “Go,” “Whole page,” 
etc.—were given in both English and Spanish to the younger 
Mexican groups. 

The Pantomime test consists of four pictorial sub-tests—a pic- 
ture-completion test, a symbol-series-completion test, a similar- 
relations, and a dissimilar-relations test. 

While the Pantomime test reduces to a minimum the language 
handicap of the foreign groups, it is not to be assumed that the 
test permits all of our subjects to operate under equally favorable 
conditions. It is questionable, for instance, whether our groups 
have had equal opportunity to familiarize themselves with many 
of the concepts included in its content. Then, too, those foreign 
children who in the practice test do not understand what is desired 
are not easily set aright. Although an interpreter was used in 
such cases, the very fact of this attention tended to confuse or 
embarrass the pupil. Lastly, the foreign groups are likely to be 
handicapped because of certain habits or attitudes which they 
carry over from a language situation involving English to a non- 
verbal, though language, situation. The Mexican who has built 
up the habit of pondering over commands given in English before 


36 7 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


proceeding to the execution of them may react in the same way to 
an American’s gesture commands and, hence, attack the test with 
little confidence or despatch. A hesitating manner, whether for 
this or other reasons, was very evident, especially among the rural 
and less advanced city Mexican groups. 

The National Intelligence Test is particularly valuable as a con- 
trast to the Pantomime test, because it presents numerous oppor- 
tunities for the use of English. The directions are given verbally 
‘and are rather elaborate. Most of the sub-tests, furthermore, 
involve reading and writing, as well as general information which 
the school is a prominent agent in furnishing. A comparison, 
then, of the reactions of the subject groups to these two types of 
test should throw into relief the role of the language handicap of 
the foreigner in his performance on the former. Some of our 
groups, too, we might expect to be at a disadvantage, not only 
-because of a deficiency in their experience with the English lan- 
guage, but also, as we have suggested in the case of the Panto- 
mime test, because of a lack of opportunity to accumulate the 
experience necessary to a successful adaptation to the more general 
conceptual or informational content of the test. 

The National is composed of five sub-tests—namely, an arith- 
metical, a best-answers, a sentence-completion, a synonym- 
antonym, and a digit-symbol-substitution test. 

The Detroit and Pintner-Cunningham tests resemble one 
another and are intermediate to the Pantomime and National 
tests, as far as linguistic involvement is concerned. The com- 
mands are given verbally. These, however, were translated into 
Spanish for the Mexican groups. A practice example is also 
usually employed, but this is limited to one, in contrast to the 
rather extended number given in the Pantomime test. 

The sub-tests of the Detroit are pictorial and include an infor- 
mation test, a form-, as well as size-discrimination test, two direc- 
tions tests, an absurdity test, a symbol-series-completion test, and 
a copy test. 

The Pintner-Cunningham test includes seven sub-tests—a gen- 
eral-information, an esthetic-discrimination, a picture-part, an 
associated-objects, a picture-completion, a dot-drawing, and a size- 
discrimination test. 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 37 


VI. METHODS OF PRESENTING THE DATA 


Our data will be presented in the form of: (1) age and grade 
standards for the various groups (see Tables XVII to XX, XXII 
to XXV, and Figures 6 to 11); (2) absolute- and relative-fre- 
quency distributions of the scores of our subject populations (see 
Tables IX to XVI and Figures 2 to 5); and (3) the percentage 
of each group exceeding the median score of each of the others 
(see Tables XXI and XXVI). 

The frequency distributions indicate in a gross and unanalyti- 
cal fashion the general trends of our results. (See Tables 1X to 
XVI and Figures 2 to 5.) They show rather clearly the relative 
efficiency of the groups as wholes, the relative amounts of over- 
lapping in the performance of the various peoples, and the total 
range of the reactions. They afford in no way, however, even a 
statistical control of innate or opportunity factors. 

No description of the frequency surfaces will be attempted, 
since our aim in including them is merely to give the reader a 
bird’s-eye view of the material before he is plunged into the 
details of our analysis. 

The age norm (see Tables XVII to XX), in contrast to the 
non-analytical frequency surface, is a device for controlling statis- 
tically the time phase of that tremendously complex factor which 


iad 


we might term “ opportunity for experience.’’ It does not con- 
trol perfectly, as has so often been assumed, even the factor of 
physical maturity, for it has been rather conclusively demonstrated 
that nutrition or race, for instance, as weJl as age, influences 
maturity. Both of these factors are conspicuous variables in our 
subject groups. Our age groups, furthermore, as was demon- 
strated in the previous chapter, differ widely in their school 
advantages. Since, lastly, certain economic and social forces, 
such as the school-attendance tradition, that vary with the age of 
the child, may affect the various racial, national, and economic 
groups differently, we are not justified in assuming that our age 
samples are entirely comparable, nor equally representative of 


38 . HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


TABLE IX 
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION OF THE PANTOMIME SCORES OF THE VARIOUS SUBJECT GROUPS 












































Score 
Subject Yas ESD DSI Woe et SU yg Bar Be WN ad WD RCNA FO Oe ee 
Group 
0-4.9 | 5-9.9 |10-14.9|15-19.9|20-24.9|25-29.9|30-34.9|35-39.9/40-44.9|45-49.9|50-54.9/55-59.9) Total 
CWO eet 7 26 48 33 60 119 110 92 62 25 9 5 594 
CNL ee 21 30 59 (S: 93 131 bias 59 oe 17 1 Paty co 629 
CON ea yee 42 65 87 91 96 113 73 31 8 4 5 ee 613 
RW rag A a Le eR We eine 63 96 124 112 81 72 20 19 4 Rese: et 617 
RMS os ai iien, 128 263 222 134 70 32 11 Ree, A fhe Cavs tea 863 


TABLE X 
RELATIVE FREQUENCY (PER CENT) OF THE PANTOMIME SCORES OF THE VARIOUS SUBJECT GROUPS 


— 





















































Score 

DUD ISSE HMMM ANT wesw WL  MUd ee PET ID, Ae- A WNT ian A cl RA ORR OTe S Eesaue MeN DRL NAA OE heii Ap 
Group : 

0-4.9 | 5-9.9 |10-14.9}15-19.9|20-24.9/25-29 9|30-34.9|35-39.9/40-44.9145-49.9|50-54.9|55-59.9/|60-64.9} Total © 
CW... ye 4.4 8.0 SUS LOPE ZO OMI Soom) Wl mea mabe A ee Les, O75 |i ore 100 
CM Sie" 4.8 9,4)) 11.6.4. 14,8)) (20:855,18.0 9.4 Bal PASM | Aa Wed AN 100 
CNAF OFS MOG Hela lA MRR Lag eS a a aa yO 52 as} .6 {5 100 
RW.. LES LOS 2 bUG6 Me ZO LS eats lor Owl len Bs 3.0 SOT ibaeiate ees ea L 100 
RM.. TAUB ESOS Sue tidy Lee 8.2 BEN Wy TA en ae ye ieaae ne OKs | 100 


TABLE XI 
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION OF THE NATIONAL SCORES OF THE VARIOUS SUBJECT GROUPS 

















f ‘Score 
Subject Yess 
Group 
0-19.9 |20-39 .9}40-59 . 9160-79 . 9|80—-99 .9/100-119 .9}120-139.9}140-159.9] Total 

CW 4 vp 54 63 63 51 30 ff 294 
CMe 1 74 75 56 34 13 1 270 G 
Ay lle Pe tf 55 97 66 20 1 246 MK) 
RWiitunes 14 41 74 66 67 44 16 5 327 H 
RMU 43 65 53 11 8 180 


TABLE XII a 
RELATIVE FREQUENCY (PER CENT) OF THE NATIONAL SCORES OF THE VARIOUS SUBJECT GROUPS oy 

















Score 
Subject gee saD MMe ie Pes ee TBE es ee 
Group 
0-19.9 |20-39.3|40-59 .9|60-79 .9|/80—99 . 9} 100-119 .9}120-139.9/140-159.9| Total 
COW einen Dea: 7.5 18.4 2Aa4: 21.4 athe eg! 10.2 Pra’ 100 
CMS a ae 6.3 27.4 27.8 20.7 12.6 4.8 4 AM 100 
CNet 2.8 PPE 39.4 26.8 8.3 hae te 1 .4 at 100 
RW 4.3 1255 22.6 20.2 20.4 13.6 4.9 D5 100 
RMF 23.8 36.0 29.4 6.10 4.3 ae eRe Near 100 





A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 39 


TABLE XIII 
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION OF THE DETROIT SCORES OF THE VARIOUS SUBJECT GROUPS 








Score 
Subject were 
Group 
5-9.9 |10-14.9]15-19.9]20-24.9/25-29.9|30-34.9135-39.9|40-44.9|45-49.9|50-54.9|55-59.9) Total 





























OBST S eee AaRNS Lae 'e bE? RUA? 1 3 8 16 38 12 NESS vot’ 78 

RACING Biep OOenE a Sei 2 4 8 13 16 25 25 YJ 2 railed a 104 

HS Beet Se ai ae lets 5 5 15 25 37 36 9 audtennd | gee oe 132 
TABLE XIV 


RELATIVE FREQUENCY (PER CENT) OF THE DETROIT SCORES OF THE VARIOUS SUBJECT GROUPS 


: Score 
Subject 
Group 






5-9.9 |10-14.9]15-19.9|20-24.9|25-29.9/30-34.9135-39.9|40-44.9|45-49.9|50-54.9|55-59.9|60-64.9| Total 























2 Son LOPS ie ON AGN Cit oh sO Wepieuatey inven at Maas 
12.3 | 15.4 | 24.4 | 24.4 8.6 18 Beep Ie tree 100 
DLT 4) (018.95 1828707) 27.3 GBP TonCG saat Mra 


BR ieseie 6 6 2 6 6 © 


TABLE XV 
FREQUENCY DISTRIBUTION OF THE PINTNER-CUNNINGHAM SCORES OF THE VARIOUS SUBJECT GROUPS 


Score 








5-9.9 |10-14.9/15-19.9]20-24.9/25-29.9/30-34.9|35-39.9|40-44.9|45-49.9|50-54.9/55-59.9| Total 





























BPMs tates aks lav ysl ae. tots) 5 Des | eeiat 3 3 ilk 10 26 31 29 11 2 126 
“he SS See eee By See 3 5 3 12 15 17 23 15 6 1 100 
seas 1 aan 2 12 26 26 16 3 satel 87 


TABLE XVI 


RELATIVE FREQUENCY (PER CENT) OF THE PINTNER-CUNNINGHAM SCORES OF THE VARIOUS 
SUBJECT GROUPS 


Score 


5-9.9 |10-14.9]15-19.9|]20-24.9|25-29.9|30-34.9/35-39.9|40-44.9/45-49.9|50-54.9|55-59.9|60-64.9/ Total 





























Pete 2.4 2.4 Bek 8.0 | 20.6 | 24.6 | 23.0 8.7 ; pA 
3.0 5.0 S20 Hieron 1. ON ety Oise. OO 6.0 LisD yt hgtass 100 
ae a a baer 2.4 | 13.8 | 29.8 | 29.8 | 18.4 Se Sal OR ea lo aie 


40 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


their respective populations. The samples with which we are 
dealing are school samples only. 

The norms are stated in terms of the median, as well as the 
mean, in order that the influence of the extreme measures may be 
rendered apparent. Such a precaution seemed essential, since 
the number of subjects included in our age and grade groups is 
frequently small. 


CITY 


| — — — WHITES 


MEXICANS 
N Se i teeeituse INEGROES 
| \ RURAL 


| —— — — —WHITES 
\ —— —— ——MEXICANS 


FREQUENCY 





Fic. 2. Frequency Distribution of the Pantomime Scores of the Various 
Subject Groups. 


Like the age norm, the grade norm (see Tables XXII to XXV), 
a device for supposedly equalizing at least school experience, is a 
very imperfect tool. Mere presence in the same grade in school 
does not mean equally efficient instruction, nor the enjoyment of 
equally satisfactory equipment. One needs but contrast the 





A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 41 


splendidly furnished and administered schools of San Antonio 
with the little one-teacher rural school, in which the equipment 
seems to consist of a roof over the head and a pencil in the hand, 
in order to appreciate the pitiable inequality of some of our grade 
groups, as far as even school advantages are concerned. Fur- 
thermore, within the cities themselves the races are not always 
favored with entirely comparable school conditions. Lastly, the 
grade groups of our various subjects are undoubtedly not equally 
representative of their respective peoples, and the kind of repre- 
sentation varies in a diverse fashion in the different grades for 
each particular subject population. 





/ CITY 
/ \ 
/ ‘ ee tae WHITES 
/ \ PIEKICANS 
Ss hs — — — — NEeRuS 
; / Reeser aos RURAL 
/ ‘ ey 
oe cel RN abn 
/ - \ NK 
ys és ‘3 Ss \ >. 
DEO CORT EN ND 
nay / Nt 
i as if \ eis 
i, \ \ oe 
PRA N 
/ VA / \ \ x a 
Ba is belt ant Ben 
S / hfe ae \ on ee Ne 
= ib aye Piaget cal end REN 
Aes Tees Lee 
ey B aA ] V5 i iG = 0 ST = 7 = 
SCORE 
Fic. 3. Frequency Distribution of the National Scores of the Various Subject 


Groups. 


A statement of the age and grade results in terms of a measure 
independent in general of the test weightings and the range of test 
scores is desirable, in order to facilitate comparisons such as that 
of the relative difficulty of our tests for the various subject popu- 
lations, the relative degree of success with the different tests of 
the rural and city samples of given peoples, etc. Such a measure 
is the percentage of one group exceeding the median score of 
another. 

The percentages were obtained by a method described earlier 


42 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 







CITY : 
fim 
a WAIT LS / i 
Paina ICAI CANS / 
— — — — NEGROES 







FREQUENCY 





y) 
SCORE 3 
Fig. 4. Frequency Distribution of the Detroit Scores of the Various Subject 
Groups. 
City Piss 
— - — Wurtes bi i \ 
MEXICANS { ayia 
——-—— NEGROES 





FREQUENCY 


—— 
-— 
— — — «ms am = 






0 






Score 


Fic. 5. Frequency Distribution of the Pintner-Cunningham Scores of the 
Various Subject Groups. 








A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 43 


in the report. Since the number of measures included in any 
one distribution tends to be small, and the distributions, further- 
more, are not always normal, the percentages are merely sugges- 
tive. Still, the repeated occurrence of certain relationships is 
probably a reliable index of the mode of operation of significant, 
rather than fortuitous, forces. 

With the values and limitations of the various measures in 
mind, let us proceed to a consideration of our test results. 


44 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


VII. PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF THE 
TEST RESULES 


1. COMPARISON OF WHITES AND MEXICANS 


Test Scores. For all tests (see Tables XVII to XXVI and 
Figures 6 to 11), at all ages, in all grades, and for both city and 
rural groups, the mean and median scores of the Whites are con- 
siderably higher than those of the Mexicans. That these differ- 
ences are reliable is indicated not only by the consistency of the 
tendency shown, but also by the fact that, if we obtain the quotient 
of the difference between the various comparable age- and grade- 
group means or medians and the probable error of this difference, 
it ranges from .25 to 18.43 for the Pantomime test; for the 
National test, from .56 to 15.43; for the Pintner-Cunningham, 
from .74 to 3.82; and for the Detroit, from 1.31 to 10.03 (see 
Tables XVII to XX and XXII to XXV). 

The reliability quotients of the age-group differences are all 
greater than 3, in the case of the National, Pantomime, and 
Detroit tests; and with one exception, this is true also for the 
Pintner-Cunningham. The same can be said of only about 50 
per cent of the grade-norm differences. 

Tables XXI and XX VI show, moreover, that 73 to 98 per cent 
of the Whites exceed the median of the equivalent Mexican age 
groups, and 53 to 80 per cent that of the grade groups. The 
Whites, then, unquestionably outrank the Mexicans in corre- 
sponding socio-economic divisions, and the performance of the 
two nationalities for a given grade tends to differ less than that 
for a given age. 

Since the grade norm controls more successfully than does the 
age norm the factor of scholastic opportunity, this latter observa- 
tion suggests that environmental factors play a not inconspicuous 
part in the determination of intelligence-test performance. The 
convincingness of the argument is marred somewhat, however, 
by the fact that the Mexican is favored in the grade-for-grade 
comparisons by his greater age and school experience. 








A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 45 


A significant supplement to our major observation from which 
we have briefly digressed—that the Whites react much more suc- 
cessfully to the tests than do the corresponding city or rural 
Mexicans—is this: If the standard of the city Mexican is com- 
pared with that of the rural White—a comparison which equates 
probably more effectively than the intra-city and intra-rural ones 
the social opportunities of the groups—we find that the rural 
Whites excel consistently only on the National test. The per- 
formance on the Pantomime test of all of the city-Mexican grade 
groups is superior to that of the rural-White; and the same con- 
dition obtains for the age groups, with the exception of the 
seventh and eighth years. The differences just described do not 
have, however, the magnitude of those noted in the city-Mexican- 
city-White comparisons, nor the intra-rural comparisons of the 
two nationalities. 

What are some of the possible interpretations of the slight, 
but consistent, superiority of the city-Mexican’s reaction to the 
Pantomime test, as opposed to that of the rural White? To be 
sure, the former is favored in the grade comparisons by his 
greater age for a given grade, and, probably, through the opera- 
tion of a sampling factor which makes itself felt significantly in 
_the comparisons by ages as well. In other words, the older 
Mexican, doubtless, maintains his place in school more largely 
on the basis of his native ability than does the White, whose 
school-attendance tradition is of a higher standard, and who is 
not loaded with the economic burdens that retard the former. 
This latter hypothesis is supported by the fact that the absolute 
variability of the city-Mexican groups does not increase so uni- 
formly with age as does that of the rural-White, and by the 
common observation that a larger percentage of Whites than of 
Mexicans of each age attend school. Accurate statistics on this 
latter point were not procurable, but the generalization is 
nevertheless unequivocal. 

Of course, it is also possible that a very inferior class of Whites 
gravitates to the rural districts. Were this, however, the entire 
explanation of the relative standing of the city Mexicans and 
rural Whites, as far as the Pantomime test is concerned, then we 


COLO 6p, Olle ie @. SONG Kor he 


O11 aha) @ (ala) 06)\ | ese, Be les 


B14 81/006, .9i) 01 elo. Sale 6) @0e0S i 


9 ea (ems, she \o) 6) ele! o shelve 


hia seve) 6. mpe} es) \¢ le 16 50) 08,0 


oO, /e Wo) 0.'e) 6410, 980! ake .@) 9) 6 (6 6 


©. &) 2 \e}o) Che .¢) 0 he) iene .o) JeLafe 


wale \s |e d) se wie s else le 4 


@ elo /:6) "0 \@ 18) 6S ye) ele: 0 he ays 


Cpt bh rel ele bee se (e| «lee okey 


ding 6 oie 6) we LR ia) 6,6 he isle e 


G5 ws, een wo) egy (eel (ol arya 


ere eee eee eee ewes 


error eee ee re eense 


ee yo he he TA a it a WP Te th ee 


Ole a tele 6 Siere, 6 6/e oe 12% 


be Piel) (ei ah ellen (ae Nation s.:6 





Mean + P.E. Mean 


ae Lala Se me) 6 le Fe, tei |h) ote le a) 016). Be saya TP enelse, oie) Opis) = baits 


18.65 + .62/10.30+ .69]}12.10+.52 
12.58+.56] 6.62+.11 





25.75+ .61/16.45+ .87|19.10+.92 
16.52+.68] 8.03+.41 





31.20+.51/21.452 .88/22.334.71 
20.244.55| 7.712.41 





33.85 + .64/26 .65 + .57/23.15+.66 
22.91 +.76)11.23+.22 


slo) 4 oleic l/s te 0 te 


36.00+ .74/28.74+ .60|25.15+ .66 
23.93 + .66/12.25+ .42 


36.85 + . 76/28 .30+ .57/24.60+.76 
26.18+.74]13.524.34 








33.85 + .98/29.30+ .61/26.50+ .92 
20: 04 fe TLS 70 el Op re aay 





HAREM YS et 28 .35+1.06/25.40+1.47 
24.95+.83]/16.31+.61 


MEN ep get 28.95 +1 .22/21.50+1.49 
15.17+.86 


Sele a @ bee te eh Bees me O Rte SON T oe il a. «eye ae 


HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


TABLE 
AGE COMPARISONS OF THE VARIOUS 


Difference Between Means 


P.E. Difference of Means) 














8.98| 8.09] 2.07| 7.31] 5.26] 10.64 





6.04) 2.09] 10.14] 8.77 











9.20] 10.19] 0.78] 14.61] 14.16 











11.63} 4.02} 11.05) 25.28 














10.96} 4.03} 12.19) 22.28 

















9.00] 11.34] 3.89] 10.07] 22.39] 15.63 
3.96] 5.48] 2.54] 4.84] 20.80] 17.07 f 

















1.62 9.87} 8.39 
potess oil aac areas Res 
3.86 9.25 


XVII 
SUBJECT GROUPS—PANTOMIME TEST 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 


47 





, 15. 








Median + P.E. Median 


Ww 


00 


41+. 
39+. 


48+. 
cand 


:Oo2k. 
.23 +. 


.83-. 
182. 


-96 +. 
A ie 


200 se. 


(25. A294 12.882. 


- 35.3141.22|29.15-4. 
28.50 +.89/13.39+.48 


ee ee ee eee 


Bre 6x60 es oe 


M N 


8.50+1.87 


Jee. eg via! 04 


77| 9.10+.86]11.07+.65 
70} 6.12+.14 


76}15.95+1.08}18 .00 + .90 
85) 7.14+.52 


64/21.90+1.11/23.25+ .89 
68} 8.39+.51 


80/27.60>. 
76|10.72+.48 


93/29.90>. 
83]11.63+. 





95|27.90+. 


75|26.64+1.15 


a6 14.106 Sols we 


a) eae ¢ 8 pe 


Difference Between Medians 





P.E. Difference of Medians 








COr7Gi CuCcterC trCleRaCeR hRER 
WMIWN|IMN;|;WW{|MM|WM 




















8.09)" 7734)5 1.82) 6:81)" 3.42)) 7.42 











GIS Were LOW 250 8.97734) 9 20) 























6.981 6.95| 0.67| 12.47| 11.26] 12.75 
6.821 10.29] 4.22] 11.50] 19.86] 12.73 
5.09| 8.55} 4.13] 10.64] 20.08] 11.37 














8.13) 8:28] 1.54) 9:08} 18.32) 12.17 


Sigma of 
_ Distribution 





Wa A 


10.55 


9.35] 6. 
Osh iy 


9.00} 8. 
7.89) 5.66 


8.45]10.25) 9.90 
7.42) 5.96 


a | ee | 


9.15} 8.72) 9.00 
8.88) 6. 


9.10} 8.60! 8.75 
9.33) 6. 


N 


9.65 


67) 7.95 
31 


40|10.20 


125} 61) 89 


11 


69| 93) 81 


13 91| 99 


pes) ak Fe V8) 


63) 94) 65 


— | $$ $$ | | ——— —— | ——— |] SS | SES SS S| | | S| | | | - | 


——$ | —— | —— | SESS | SS | | I | | | | | 


—_— | — | | SS | SS | S| SS | | | | | |S | | LI OO - 


30.00 +1.52/22.50 +1.87 
14.38+1.08 


4.31) 5.16) 1.83] 4.51] 17.71] 14.96 
= 

0.75 8.83] 7.82 
3.11 8.40 





48 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


TABLE 
AGE COMPARISONS OF THE VARIOUS 





Difference Between Means 








































































































Mean + P.E. Mean SAAS SSiusTe PEATE OS aed EIST PA ads Ge ae eT oe, 
P.E. Difference of Means 
Age Bt 
W M N CS LChCT Oe Ci Ri Cun 
WM|WN|MN|WW/| MM! WM 
8 RNOLD Nia CHS4 154 O81 uid 435042 37ib. Vide Pe1s 
AED AD Rr geht RA] des Ne tanh SRN SH ean es 
9 SERGE PS Nh tsa) C/l65.65-£2.30/45.4044.11|50,05+42.13|| 4.30| 4.98] 1.00] 2.78 
GR HNN Ran Ay, Rise nSs 253i, Le ee, 
10 CONE Ne ae C||66.80+:1.53]/48.65-4£2.20|52.3542.15|| 6.79| 5.49] 1.20] 0.18 
AE Ri An Oh wba Rilegi29 2 Bole eee ie ean 
11 RESET SAR C]lo4.35 +£2.39/50.37+2.12/58.15+1.54|| 13.78] 12.74] 2.98] 6.93| 6.84] 13.00 
ois Sia or ae Ri/71.13-+2.35]29.78-42.15]........0. 
12 EES Ao koe C|}102.75 £2.47|47.05 £2.75|55.20+2.25|] 15.09] 14.23] 2.29] 5.36| 3.89] 11.23 
Oy Ea as sat R||81.98 +2.99/30.98+3.42|..........|| .. 
13 BRS TN a ea C]/96.00+3.41|61.45+2.13/59.0541.93|| 8.61] 9.45] 0.83] 3.15] 10.01] 15.43 
BR ik age R|/82.24 +2 59]33.304-1.84]..........|| .. ‘" 
14. “ACA gaia ee red | Ecc eel Gf 63.354-3:391571543.03|| -.. ‘| | 1.36) 24/9 5.051.141 30m 
LBC ame RI{101.22+3.44]43.1942.11]..........] z. 
iG Ste ARAM oh hy CHB Ae as 65.85+3.44/33.75 Rah) Ce ARIE IA sw ean PR a 


eras Oa Abe ABE: RU ev eshtee tage nd 2 eet Ole es ee 





A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 


XVIII 
SUBJECT GROUPS—NATIONAL TEST 


Median + P.E. Median - 









































w M N cclcc 
WM|WN 

AES OER re te 49.16 £2.97 0.48 
59.00 +2.88140.00 +5.16/50.62 42.97|| 3.411 2.02] 1.78] 0.49 
Oe EAE DI TERA EGR i 
~ 68.61 -£1.92|44.38 -+2.76|54.0042.69|| 7.21] 4.42] 2.49] 2.49 
PN ST leh ates NN 
96.25 +3.00|50.62 +2.66|55.42-+1.93|| 11.40 


74.38 +2.95|28.34+2.70 














07 .08 +3.10/40.83 +3.44|55.50242.82|| 14.30 
81.004-3.75/28.22+2.73).......... 
98.13 +4.27|66.25+2.68/57.5022.42|| 6.32 


® 79.38+3.24/32.50+2.31 


SS & 6) 50 (ee! © cee 














2.31| 3.30 








5.36] 2.87 


Difference Between Medians 


P.E. Difference of Medians 


Cac Cr RitC Re yRR 
MN;|iWW;|MM|WM 





ee 


11.46] 1.46] 5.20] 5.89] 11.53 





hae 


8.33] 2.33) 3.50] 9.56! 11.80 





0.00 


3.25] 12.50 


Sigma of 
Distribution 


WwW M N 


28.30 17.55 


25.45/21 .15/20.70 
23.99 


SS ee aay 


19.10/22 .39/19.60 
27.57 


27.50/21 .56}16.95 
28 .99}14.98 


28.15/27 .60/20.30 
30.69}19.41 


29.00/24. 86/14. 60 
28 .94/18.13 


27 .10)16.75 
33 .45)22 .37 


49 








56} 12) 43 
Al 


71| 47} 38 
66 


60} 47) 55 


——— ee eee eee ee ee a ee ee ee eee es 


70.00 +4.31/30.G0 
45.62 +4.33 


Bw ee ue oe a 6 > 


Pe ee ee ee be OO) Sem ee 


25.00}14.75 
24.55 








HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


50 














FI pan das | pectin peed peeks | pide ee 607100 OF | eee es ee fee | ee IBOFOTIR ed eee eI 
¢ |e Sst Flsezt 00°SP oosel SG) EF cepel ccc ete ae ral 
6 |8Ij€ |/0L €|S2'8 88° 1h|F9 TF 00'OF OS'eF G6 IP|TE TFO9'8E (6h SS eee Il 
LITEI6 ||0L' 6)OL 6/02 8i/ Te T 66 1 0S°2r|ZP I+ 0S'6E €8°SP||9L 0 6S IFSP OFZ IFS68E OLVHIO SS = eee Or 
FLLZTIEEllSz' S|00 6IOZ 9}/80' TITS F]/ PO Z||6T IF 2S’ 8E|S8' IF 66 0F/66 OF T2'Sh]/90 1/S9 E/c8 & S6°OF S9'6E LVTS-OS LEIGL OF SE PUNO on oe, cee Se 6 
O€|Z |Zh||S6' 9/8%° L)0S'9 €S'& LO TF OS'LE 0S°LZ/S8'OF TEcP cl PF 98°0F OS°LE 08°9Z189°0-F 00 CFI Sa ee ae 8 
g |: ‘Isellog’¢ Or’ eeepc Oz: IF Sz°98 crept ggoFosPEllo ccc L 
ve deode Sag ee ee See Se irc bare | ac rarer oe emanate 00 CE aerate Pts ee pee a Oo celia ee eae 9 

N WIN MjIVM NWN M/IWM 
NIWIM|| N | WY] M YO OO OP O N W M 3 Pg 5S Fd) 8 Ee, N W M 
suBIpeyy jo sues, jo 
susIINiqC “Ad VuUsIIVIG Ad o3y 
Aduenb]| uonngdiuyjsiq 
-a1y JO BUIBIS —_——— UBIPIAL “A “d F uvipsy a a uBIJ, ‘A'd F uve 
suBIpey] subs, 
u99M79q u2vaM}9q 
duslIyIg sualI Iq 


er 
LISA], WWHONINNDD-YaNINIG—SdnOdt) LOALANS SNOIVA AHL 40 SNOSINVYdNOD ADY 


XIX 


ATAVL 


51 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 





a0) 
“1g 

GTjtt}- 
LTES|3" 
ES|FCIES 
99/22/10 
OT} 


OS's 
9F'8 
S6 6/06 'F 
0S S|T8° 8)0S "2 
GS 9/ES 9/08 'F 
g9°Z|SZ°Zj0S Ss 
oco's 


Aduenb 
-31 J 


uoHnndiysiqd 
JO BUISIS 


66 0 
S90 
29 olesz vE'€ 
BP's Tl Pel e 


eson ccc 
Geena oho tae oo'sH ccc 

GL LFS) Rel Fe T-Sh 6S) soe €8°0 
ET IFGL 8E|SS IFO LE OO'SFI|OT 2c 


ST IF ET'88/80 TF ST LEIS8 OF EL TFIIP9 Oleh S|TE PF 
08° FE 9EI9Z TF 06'82|89'0F 09 OF||E6 SI9E’ SISO'OT 
BPIFooge ccf 














NWN MIM N WIN MJITM 
Se N W M laa) 
SUBIPaI Jo subs] jo 


susIIIG “Ad 


SUBIP2IAL 
u93M49q 
aouaIIyIG 


sUsIEVIG “A’d 


ueIpIA “Ad F uelpsyy epee mesa seis 
SURI 
u29M79q 
soUsIAVIG 


ZE-L tT; OG-2E166 027 0668) ee 
06°0F S6'8EIFS IFSL°SE 00°SF 
66 OF S8°9E 98:0F SO'9€|89' 0+ SZ'0F 
€9°0F 00°SE|00' IF 90° 82S’ FOP 6E 
STTHocrel ccc fo 


N W M 





Ue “Ad F uray 


asy 











LSaL LIOdLAd—sSdnOast) LOALANS SNOIMVA AHL JO SNOSINVANOD ADDY 


XX ATAVL 


52 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


should be justified in expecting the Mexican, whatever his age, 
to excel. This condition does not obtain, for the youngest rural 
Whites outrank the city Mexicans. Still we may argue, in this 
latter case, that the linguistic deficiency of the young, untutored, 
city Mexican may so paralyze his initiative or self-confidence 
that, in spite of his general ability, he can not surpass the rural 
Whites on a relatively non-verbal test. 


TABLE XXI 


AGE COMPARISONS OF THE VARIOUS SUBJECT GROUPS ON THE BASIS OF THE PER CENT OF ONE GROUP EXCEEDING 
THE MEDIAN TEST SCORE OF ANOTHER 













































































Comparison Test a 
fi 8 9 LO Geta 2o eS ened eae ss 
vears|years |years|years|years| years|years|years|years 
Pantomimesie te ease SSMS ITS4 al (Oo MFO ESO Mpa ant noes 
Per cent of CW exceeding Md. of CM.....|National.. ; a Attell ides bo Jee CAL aby Gad ale eoee eae 
Pintner- Cunningham.. ct ate Iie Aledo pu BY) Bas Be 
Detroity ees ae teen. 98 | 83 
Per cent of RW exceediiaiMd! oF RAG) Wllbantomilnes jaune ie 78 | 87 | 93 | 90 | 88 | 91 | 95 | 87 
National irae ne a vy: vs .. | 94 | 96 | 94 | 97 
Per cent of “CW exceeding Md. of RW... aN tOnIMEe te Nees ae CNS ToVnOk NW O2n ie GSS eo etn 
National vases) rs oe [Do | OG 69" (76S alee 
Per cent of “CM exceeding Md. of RM.....|/Pantomime.......... 67 | 85 | 91 |.97 | 98 |.97 1:95 | 90:1 95 
Nationalssinee cide Mr. si ise SN SSS GZ OI oe ae 
Per cent of RW exceeding MdvofC Meese Pantomime yin sei OSi (520) 36 Nl2 (leon R40 el BA eee 
NMationalicne iat te ues a hope Lah COLE OOM © ca tsoo 
ae eel Sim Ae Pantomime........... 78 | 83 | 81 | 90 | 88 | 90 | 85 
Per cent of CW exceeding Md. of CN.....|National............. Ti teoe (PHOS ULV TOol Gantt SauieS 
Pintner-Cunningham...|... | 77 | 85 a ay 
Detroitayey owen CSONOEL 
Per cent of RW exceeding Md. of CN.....|Pantomime.......... 52 | 41 | 29 | 46 | 39 | 58 | 58 | 42 
Nationallnycei een as ot (60 58184 SOn nee 
, Pantomime.......... 38 | 40 | 45 | 70 | 70 | 59 | 60 | 56 t 
Per cent of CM exceeding Md. of CN.....|National............. «U4 eee toh fea 41 1-30 Gag oG id 
Pintner- mp arenas te Se GOsa roe tenet : bs 
Detroitin dev nuene cntss ys ed on 4 oa a 





If unfamiliarity with English presumably functions thus 4 
materially in the response to the Pantomime test, how much more | 
profound should we expect to be its effects on the other tests. 
Do our data justify our expectations? The handicap on the 
National test seems to manifest itself in several interesting rela- 
tionships. The reversal of the position of first rank among the 
city Mexicans and rural Whites in the Pantomime and National 
tests is a significant one of these. Then, too, in the intra-urban 
and intra-rural comparisons, among both age and grade groups, 





A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN _ 53 


there is consistently more overlapping of the Pantomime score 
distributions of the two nationalities than of the National. Espe- 
cially does this latter fact become significant when we note, in 
the case of the city Negro, who suffers no such pronounced lin- 
guistic deficiency as the Mexican, that the National test is not, 
relative to the city-White standard, more difficult for him than is 
the Pantomime. It seems reasonable to suggest in the light of 
these facts that the National test capitalizes the foreigners’ disad- 
vantages and, hence, is none too desirable as a tool for measuring 
the relative intelligence of races. 

It is worthy of note at this point, furthermore, since we are 
facing the problem of the influence of linguistic factors upon test 
performance, that a larger percentage of city Whites exceeds the 
median of the city Mexicans in the case of the Detroit test than in 
the case of the Pantomime. The reverse obtains for the Pintner- 
Cunningham and Pantomime. ‘The tests ranked, then, from high- 
est to lowest in order of the degree to which they differentiate the 
two nationalities are the Detroit, National, Pantomime, and 
Pintner-Cunningham. Since, however, the percentages shown 
in Tables XXI and XXVI indicate only roughly the relative dif- 
ficulties presented by our tests to the Mexican, and, moreover, 
since the Detroit and Pintner-Cunningham were given to only 
one grade, or a relatively few ages, we may with justice question 
the ranking of these one-grade tests. A rather serious consider- 
ation, however, of the various inter-test relationships will probably 
cast some light upon the problem of the forces active in the 
production of the one-grade test results. 

The linguistic demands of the Detroit test may account, in part, 
for the fact that a greater percentage of first-grade Whites score 
higher than the median of the Mexicans in this test than in the 
Pantomime. ‘The operation of the handicap is not so apparent 
in the age groups, probably because of the counterbalancing effect 
of a sampling factor; for let it be remembered that the Panto- 
mime test was given to all of the pupils in the first five or six 
grades, whereas the personnel of the population submitting to the 
Detroit test was first-graders. It is not only possible but also 
probable, then, that merely the duller, less healthy eight-year-old 


54 


HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


Grade 








Low First io wins cack Cc 
Highyhirst aya ieinc catia ites Cc 
OtAPireenne siiiuis ald ects teil 
otaliParst vk cis ti ea iiadt 
Low Second oi sche Wide einyeiss Cc 
Sh ISECONG yk ete iter tee Cc 
Total Second.... gh 
MOLALISOCONG le Wine cients ER 
Low Third..... cut 
Le byed oid Bavewe hae eye Centro en oy Cc 
Otel DRIES sare aah segs ak oie co 
LOCAL RISA Ne lA enc malas R 
Low Fourth, sei yory ei Ce Cc 
BighsPiounth rites sees: GC 


Total Fourth.... 





otal/Ponrenuee ais cc oldor see: 





Low Prt) Seon cee pees Cc 
High Fifth....... a 
POCAN EEC ak ik Watniee wie ae C 
otal Pusth ee etussian faeces R 
LOWiSistn vane tara aie Cc 
HighiSixthie oe cr tolea am Gc 
Ota xth es cope aca inatirt Cc 
POtAL Sixty 2a mcs yh eat R 
LOW S€VeNUh a. ale aes > Sire tas 9 Cc 
High Seventh.............. Cc 
JT Otal Seventhein aca ssa aes C 
Total Seventh..............R 


Mean + P.E. Mean 





WwW M N 
12.85+.62)10.00+.65} 8.50+.59 
20.15+.79/18.65 + .66/12.30+ .53 
16.45 +.55)14.50+ .51/11.05+.42 
1160-6. 42) (8 VO2 SN Bh eh ae 





22.50+ .91/23.20+ .89)14.00+ .59 
27.80 +.70/23.65 + .62)20.50+ .84 
29.15-+.58/23.45+ .52/17.25+ .56 
16.83 + .50/13.12+.31 





30.55+.71|25.05+ .63/24.50+.66 
28.85 + .69/27 . 10+ .63/22.95+ .64 
29.75+ .50/25.90+ .46/23.70+. . 46 
20715 4453/1693 42h ae 


33.05 +.70|30.65+ .64/25.50+.61 
36 .35 + .55/33.95 + .61|27.55+ .60 
34.85+.45/32.25+ .44/26.55+4 .43 
23°) 7s B118 46S. 963) Cas ene 








33.75-£1.12|29.20 + .71|28.40-+1.05 
32.90 +. 99132.50-+1.22|28.20+41.59 
33.30. 74/30. 00 + .63|28.30-£1.00 
26.99-+.58|18.85+.95|.......... 





38145 es DO) er Wl act tied ror ft areca 
BO Bada 2 Obie sis screed # sustal ete eels 
39200 ter GO] 20s ae ae eel, eee ea 
MAE DAES Sd 2s | Pret nn oh PE War a 





oe fee) le! je asc 'e th) a) po Wee) o, ta) eve oie! aby ew eal eae) 


©. Bi Ye (er 0 1; bile & Tell) ©: ee) 6) lee eb & 16 te EAs oy BOS lea (hee 48 


oie 66 16 @reio ee hs & 1 pe eye eye 10 i's Bie) © b)elcd > 6's 


TABLE © 
GRADE COMPARISONS OF THE VARIOUS | 


Difference Between Means 


P.E. Difference of Means 








Circe vO POC Cae) Cae be 
WM|WN|MN|WW|MM 


RK 
WM 


a ee | ee 








3.20) 6.04] 1.97 
1.47| 9.69] 7.65 . 
2.63} 7.94] 5.39] 7.13) 10.52) 6.09. 





——$—— | ——— | | | 


0.55} 7.94) 8.67 
4.77| 6.69| 3.05 — 
7.40| 14.87| 8.15| 16.21] 17.21] 6.39) 





‘ 








————— |§ —— | | 





5.85] 7.11] 0.61] .. » | 
1.90] 6.34] 4.71 ‘ 
5.74, 9.02| 3.43] 13.33] 14.70| 7.155 


i4 


————— | —$ | | — | — —— | 


255) 8.20 
2.96] 10.86 


se | 
7.52 





3.44; 3.49) 0.63 
O. 25s Ob eae 
3.43] 4.03| 1.45) 6.78) 9.86 


——. | ——— | — | —— | | 


—— — | | ——— ——— | —— | 
























































A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 55 
XXII 
SuBJEcT GROUPS—PANTOMIME TEST 
Difference Between Medians 
Median + P.E. Median -—— ae a Sigma of Fre- 
P.E. Difference of Medians Distribution quency 
Ww M N CROC CrlGeCriGe Ro Cr Ra: Reh: WwW M N WiM|N 
WM|{|WNIMN|WW|I|MM!WM 
12.19+.77| 9.38+.81}) 7.50+.74|| 2.53] 4.42) 1.72 6.80} 7.70) 5.81|| 55| 64] 44 
21.41 +.99/17.86+.82)11.25+ .66|| 2.77) 8.61] 6.35 8.50] 7.90) 7.45]| 53) 66] 91 
14.66 + .69|14.00+.64) 9.80+.52]} 0.70) 5.65) 5.18] 4.37) 8.84!) 4.89}| 8.50} 8.60] 7.20|/108/130/135 
LO2 90-501 76.16-4-. 21) oie. 5 oe 6.06} 5.35 94|473 
24.00 +1.14|23.05+1.12}/13.20+.74|| 0.59} 7.00} 4.96 8.10) 9.25) 6.56]| 36) 49] 57 
28 .33 + .88/23.83 + .78/20.32+1.05}]} 3.84) 5.89) 2.70 8.20] 7.55) 9.74]|| 62! 67) 57 
26 .96 + .73/23.45+.65]/15.71 4.71 3.61] 11.13) 8.14) 11.71) 14.12] 10.24|| 8.55 a0 8.92!) 98}116]114 
15.60 .63|12.86+.39) 0.0.5). . e. 7.00} 6.08 89}172 
29.72 +.89/26.11+.79/25.63+4.83]| 3.05) 3.38} 0.42 || 8.30] 8.35] 8.14]] 62] 79] 69 
29.71 +. 86/27 .00+.79)24.10+.80/| 2.18) 4.79) 2.58 7.60| 7.85) 8.14)| 56] 70] 74 
29.71 +.62/26.55+.57/25.01+.58]} 3.80) 5.59) 1.92} 11.39) 13.71} 4.14]| 8.00} 8.25) 8.18}]118]149/143 
19°57 + .65|16 134-52). 00.02... 8.05] 6.58 107/114 
33.83 + .88/30.55+.81/25.63+.77|| 2.75) 7.06) 4.43 8.30] 8.00) 8.67]| 64] 70] 92 
36.03 + .69/32.92+.76|27.10+.75|| 3.07) 8.84) 4.54 7.20) 7.25] 9.09||} 79) 65/104 
35.00 +.561/31.73 +.56/26.35+.54]| 4.19] 11.24] 6.98) 14.96] 13.90} 4.09]) 7.90} 7.65} 8.93)}143/135/196 
22.43 4-.64\18 34 79)... wee Af: Seale inre 128] 78 
33.35 41.40/28 .90+ .90/28.50+1.31 2.68} 2.54) 0.25 7.40] 9.25} 5.15/} 20] 76] 11 
33.25 +1.23)32.50+1.53/30.00+2.00}| 0.38] 1.38) 0.99 7.35] 8.70] 8.83]| 25] 23] 14 
33.28 +.93/29.45+.79|28.75+1.26|| 3.16) 2.90) 0.47) 5.06} 7.23) 5.88]| 7.35) 9.25) 7.44]| 45} 99) 25 
Pipoo to 13) LOVE 19) eo. ane 8.06] 7.15 87} 26 
48 
34 
82 
71 





4l 


56 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS | P 


GRADE COMPARISONS OF THE VARIOUS 


Al 
( 
\ 


; 





4 Difference Between Means iv 

Mean + P.E. Mean - we ‘a 

P.E. Difference of Means I 

Grade SR 


Ww M N C R|R 
M WwW 


cclcecicclicR! 
WM|WN|IMN|Ww! 















































Low, Dhird, (Oaiwes nae. Ciera e 35.80+1.51|29.7041.45|| .. as 2.91 

High) Third 0 .neu sacha C/42.75-£1.49|37.43-£1.31(41.25-41.46|| 2.68] 0.72] 1.95 i 
Dotal Wnirde, cue we cums: C/42.25 1.44/36. 801.00|38.50-£1.23|| 3.11] 1.98] 1.07] 0.23| 6.30 7.59) 
otal Uhird . soqctie lak lata tes R/41.7541,.54|27.4041.11 ; 
Low: Paurthe itis, hides C|60.40-£1 .62|39.00 +1 .59|52.3541.12|| 9.46] 4.10] 6.88) .. i 24 ; 
High Fourth seseon ve Hons aie C|79.95 +1 .45|64.35-£1.54)62.62-4 .95|| 7.39) 10.01) 0.83) .. | .. ie 4 
otal Potrth kn ah a C}73.20-+1.27|51.85+1.37|58.60+. 84|| 11.47) 9.66} 4.21] 6.24] 4.63] 9.08 
Total Fourth uly sues ss R|61.64 +-1.36/41.56+1,75).......... r a: ¥ A, u: . 
TRU SRE URN cia a hai i ans I em er 
pow Biren ees ae C/82.754+3.56/80.55-+1.52|64.35 0.56 a 
Pigh Fifth ay acne: nba ask 192,70 21S ines ch 82.50+42.12|| .. 3.25 

POpAH TEN ur dent Pee ey Ci88.902:2 1B tunis. 75.404+2.33]| .. VAT ee Ty, 45) tha 8.32. 
Total Fifth io uve): ee R[84.83 +1.81/53.10+3.31|.......... Me A re fifo: aa 
Low Sietbii a ey een C}108.55 +1.93 

FRED SExth sa A hire, cei Ne C}120,00 +-2.22 

PPOUAUSIXENE. oO cise eareiaa sine C}113.30+1.52 

rotalesixen eek. sea R|98.58 +2.02 

Low 'imeventh cock donee. Coe Tuan Saleen Ligh met ae epee titer ae nme 2 ary & 

High Seventh io 'ui, Mook CAE Nie, REN cals aie ree ae ata ey aE INL & 

otal Seventh: cose the. COE RN ee Ac Cea iva) Sere Et oe 


Lotal Seventh Mea Sen ites Rj114.46 +2.76 





; 
] 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 


XXIII 


Suspyect GROUPS—NATIONAL TEST 


: Median + P.E. Median 


Ww 


M N 





eo os ss 36.25 +1.89/30.00 +1.82 


(44.17 £1.87/35.56 +1.64/39.70+1.83) 


| aide 35.88 +1.25/36.75+1.54 
41.37 +1.93/26.82+1.39 


. 


56.25 £2.03 41.25+1.99|51.25+1.40 
80.00 -+1.82|67.50+1.95/62.85+1.18 
72.67 41.59|55.00-£1.70157.95-£1.05 
60.50+1.70/40.36 +£2.19 


91.88-£4.46|81.25-£1.90|60.00 

BN eae 82.50+2.66 
Sn on bat |76.25-+2.92 
°85,42-£2.27|49.17-44.15 










‘111.43 £2.42 
1124.17 42.78 
115.91 £1.90 


BLN) ja*'s) @ 6p me (SVaLs 0 6666 » elise 


iS hee ae ck ale) 4M wo. &, KETO 


Oca e ay alo Ge) mw eh el ale y) SL ees ome 





oily tat ep B/ a) levee) ie Oe Died. 6 te) G BAe 6 


Difference Between Medians 


Wel Diferencemaralicdiank 



































COle'Cc|iC ClCOR| COR ROR 
WMIWNIMN|WWIMM|IWM 
2.38 

3.47| 1.71] 1.69 
3.40] 2.06} 0.43| 0.741 4.87| 6.13 
5.28; 2.031 4.11} 
4.69| 7.941 2.04 
7.61] 11.23} 1.48] 5.24| 5.90] 8.12 
2.19 

3.48 

AL 1Ol Mas Weta 7.68 

5.82 


re ee |e ee | | | | —— 


Sigma of 
Distribution 


13.80} 9.15 
14.35/10.47|16.35 
14.20/10.07/15.75 
20. 40)15.60 


17.30/15.98)13.70 
18.30}15.85}12.85 
20 .90/20.25)/15.30 
20.00/18 .86 


ee ee 


23 .00/19.35) 8.77 
L4eO 10.45 
21.45 15.05 
22.95/24 .56 


19.85 
19.20 
20.40 
21.40 


ee | ee | 


19.65 


57 


Fre- 
quency 


N || WiM|N 


38; 18 
42) 64) 57 
44/102) 75 
80) 90 


52| 46} 68 
72| 48) 84 
124} 94)152 
99| 53 


74) 8 
11 
19 


19 
25 
44 
73| 25 


48 
34 
82 
5 


23 


HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


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60 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


Whites, for instance, are to be found in the first grade, while the 
Mexicans who enter school late and have difficulty in adjusting 
themselves to the school situation present a wider intellectual 
range and one more nearly representative of the average age 
sample. This hypothesis is supported by the facts: (1) that 
the difference in the performance of the Mexicans and Whites 
on the Detroit test, which is pronounced for the youngest age 


TABLE XXVI 


GRADE COVPARISONS OF THE VARIOUS SUBJECT GROUPS ON THE BASIS OF THE PER CENT OF ONE GrRouUP EXCEEDING 
THE MEDIAN Test SCORE OF ANOTHER 
























































































































































Grade 
Comparison Test ERS oe NT OR et Ana Waa and 9 LS 
First |Second| Third |Fourth| Fifth | Sixth | Seventh 
Pantomimesi Gea a 53 65 65 66 70 
Per cent of CW exceeding Md. of |National............. Ne Wd 70 80 any 
CONV Eee) ary) ene SAT ah ras to Re Pintner-Cunningham.. ue 64 Ae it 
Detrortyi ey wore 83 ds. 
Per cent of RW exceeding Md. of |Pantomime.......... 67 66 66 68 84 
RVPAC Hs Ps MALLE RRS Fae a Nationalat ae vitae ae ty Ws 76 84 94 
Per cent of CW exceeding Md. of |Pantomime.......... 66 90 90 94 19 89 
ESAS AU RNMILY ae DDR Dy EPME UD Nationals) ins uate fi by 56 pe? 64 81 
Per cent of CM exceeding Md. of |Pantomime.......... 75 50 89 96 86 %2 
FUME nse as ciety atts eule koe sia Nationalciy oe ares ie, of 81 a ay te 
Per cent of RW exceeding Md. of |Pantomime.......... 30 14 20 14 40 
GY SU aAl Ae elena er ke moe! Nationalyne eisai a ue 61 61 a 
Pantomime.......... Rag 91 72 01: 86 73 
Per cent of CW exceeding Md. of |National............. eri Alp 68 76 78 
Os PACU AN IAS mb eRe a a UU BU a 1 Pintner-Cunningham...| .. 60 By sy" ce 
Detroi Lenn ih ear 79 ; 
Per cent of RW exceeding Md. of |Pantomime ......... if 51 25 33 43 He 
INS rea aha Oe I ha a aa National jasc ae wana as ¥: 59 55 65 zh 
Pantomime.......... 69 82 57 76 53 
Per cent of CM exceeding Md. of |National............. > a 47 56 as 
COIN Eis Bentrs allt Oe Acoli a A Pintner-Cunningham.. v. 47 Bt ie 
Detrotteeny raja wee 47 At: 





group, varies in its degree inversely with age; (2) that the abso- 
lute variability of the performance of the Mexicans on these 
elementary intelligence tests is greater than that of the Whites, 
whereas the reverse usually obtains for equivalent age groups in 
the case of the Pantomime test; (3) that the absolute variability 
of the reaction of the Whites to these tests tends to decrease 
slightly with advance in age, a tendency which diverges from that 
usually exhibited. 

In both the age- and grade-comparisons the relationship be- 





Bae Ss SSS ee ois 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 61 





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62 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 








Joo] 
Sa} 
| 
50) 
50| 
a nae 
| Glam 
i WHITES 
“ MEXICANS 
| —— — — NEGROES 
4 RurRAac 
& 
= = = = ——WHNES 
of —— ———_ pcan 
t 9 jo 0 F HE iP i 
AGE | | | 


Fic. 7. Mean Test Scores for Different Ages of the Various Subject Groups 
—National Test. 


cemcTialinaninaieetediaainl 


a 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 63 


tween the Pantomime and Pintner-Cunningham tests differs from 
that between the Pantomime and Detroit. The former two tests 
seem to offer the Mexican of the second grade, relative to the 
White standard, equal difficulty. This is explicable in terms of a 
sufficient reduction of the language deficiency of the Mexicans as 
they advance in school to make possible an effective handling of a 
relatively non-linguistic test, or the more ruthless operation of 
eliminative factors among them, or both. The comparisons by 





City 


—— — — Wires 
MEXICANS 
— — — NEeeRrots 


SCORE 





TAGES 
Fic. 8. Mean Test Scores for the Different Ages of the Various Subject 
Groups—Detroit Test. 


ages of the two tests show the same relationship exhibited in one 
case by the Detroit-Pantomime data; and, hence, the explanation 
in terms of an alteration in the quality of the sample, offered to 
account for the Detroit-Pantomime relation, in the case of the 
eight-year-old pupils, we may again submit as a plausible inter- 
pretation of the fact that the nine-year-old Mexicans more nearly 
reach the performance level of the Whites in the Pintner-Cun- 
ningham than in the Pantomime test. 

That, however, tests constructed along such similar lines as 


64 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


the Detroit and Pintner-Cunningham should challenge the Mex- 
ican, relative to the’ Pantomime standard, in such markedly 
different degrees, an observation we made in the preceding para- 
graph, is a problem which merits some attention. Several pos- 
sible solutions occur to us, and one of these is again the language 
factor. It seems reasonable that the second-grade Mexicans will 
be more skillful in the use of English than will those of the first 
grade, and, so, more nearly approach the White standard in the 





City 


—— — — WHITES 
MEXICANS 
~—-—— NEGROES 





AGE 
Fic. 9. Mean Test Scores for the Different Ages of the Various Subject 
Groups—Pintner-Cunningham Test. 


former grade than they do in the latter. Then, too, the two 
tests may differ even in the challenge offered by their content, an 
hypothesis which is not supported by a superficial analysis of the 
tasks included in each test. Lastly, let us suggest, it is probable 
even that the second-grade group of Mexicans may be, relative 
to the White standard, a more highly selected group than the first- 
grade. The operation of a sampling factor seems likely, since it 
is known that the elimination of the Mexican in the first grade is 
relatively heavy, and this elimination we may assume occurs to a 
considerable extent on the basis of native ability. 





A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 65 


Among the other significant facts revealed by Tables X XI and 
XXVT is this: The city Mexican comes nearer attaining the city- 
White standard than the rural Mexican does the rural-White 
standard. The statement applies to both National and Pantomime 
tests, and to both age and grade groups. This fact may be 
variously interpreted: (1) the urban samples of the two nation- 
alities may include subjects more similar in native ability than the 


46) De 
: De 
aie A par ee aA Be 
é 3 pei 
pe ea Le Ma 0 ee 
Vi Coen 
i a 
OED | of - an 
¢ Pa ” 
~ ea aed ed «a 
ten oi CITY 
sant hohe va —— — ——WHITES 
/o} ors MEXICANS 
| — — — — NEGAOES 
c RURAL 
Q | — oe WITES 
) o| —— —— — MEXICANS 
[ s} 3 4 S 
GRADE | | } 


Fic. 10. Mean Test Scores for the Different Grades of the Various Subject 
Groups—Pantomime Test. 


rural samples; (2) the opportunities of the city subjects may be 
more nearly equivalent than those of our rural peoples; (3) the 
tests may not afford the best performers (the city Whites) a 
chance to register the full extent of their powers, or the tests may 
be so weighted that the law of diminishing returns applies. 

That innate factors should be to any large degree responsible 
for the phenomenon seems improbable, for, if the relationship is 
to be explained in these terms, we must assume that the socio- 
economic forces which attract people to, and keep them in the 


66 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


Ho 


/ [i 
fae! / 
/ a Wh 
4 / /' Ty 
yh WA 
/ ue 


CITY 


emomenre meee WHITES: 
MEXICANS 
—— — — NEGROES 


RURAL 


—-— — — wnites 
coenere ) ences | mee MIEIICANS 


GRADE 
Fic. 11. Mean Test Scores for the Different Grades of the Various Subject 
Groups—National Test. 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 67 


country, act so as to select relatively more capable Whites than 
they do Mexicans. Stated specifically, the rationalization would 
be about as follows: The least fit will tend to gravitate slowly 
toward a locus where competition is not severe, 1.¢., the country. 
Then, if we assume competition is keener among the Whites than 
among the Mexicans, we may expect to find more of the rela- 
tively capable Whites retiring to seek their solace in the rural 
districts. 

Some of these assumptions conflict to a degree with general 
observations on the migrations of our subject peoples. Since the 
Mexicans, for instance, are notably a roving type and wander 
freely from country to city or vice versa, it seems unlikely that 
the rural and urban sample would differ essentially in their native 
powers. 

That the opportunities offered the two nationalities are more 
nearly similar in the city than in the country seems a more plaus- 
ible hypothesis, since, in the rural districts, consciousness of social 
responsibilities is usually not so well developed as it is in the 
urban sections where the sheer congestion teaches that our des- 
tinies are interdependent. San Antonio, for example, has recog- 
nized the Mexican as a civic and educational problem. Much 
effort has been expended to give him excellent instruction, as well 
as other social advantages, and, in some cases, even food. Of 
course, none too great in number and none too conclusive are the 
researches which shed light on the question of the effect of 
nutrition and health upon intelligence ; but works such as those of 
Pearson’ and of Hunt, Johnson, and Lincoln? are at least 
suggestive. 

Another fact bearing some significance in regard to the issue 


‘Kart Pearson. On the Relation of Health to Physical and Psychical 
Characters in School Children. Cambridge: The University Press, 1923. 
Pearson obtained a correlation between health and intelligence of .099+.014 
for boys and .144+.014 for girls. 

2Jean Lee Hunt, Burorp J. JoHNson, and Epira M. Lincotn. Health 
Education and the Nutrition Class. New York: Dutton Co., 1921. Hunt, 
Johnson, and Lincoln found their malnourished groups only very slightly 
inferior intellectually to a control group of normal children. The subjects 
used were limited in number and the differences found, while consistent, were 
not statistically significant. 


68 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


under discussion is the following: While the city subjects show 
a greater degree of similarity than do the rural at most ages, in 
the seven-year group, the one still little influenced by schooling, 
the performance of the rural pupils of the two nationalities seems 
somewhat more similar even than that of the city. 

It is not unlikely, too, that the range of capabilities tapped by 
our measures, or perhaps the extreme difficulty or faulty weight- 
ing of the more advanced sections of the test, are active in the 
production of those relationships apparent especially in the case 
of the Pantomime test. Since no one of our subjects made a 
perfect score on the Pantomime test, the former hypothesis, 1.e., 
that the test is entirely too easy, can make none too powerful an 
appeal. It seems more probable that the test is deficient in a 
well graded variety of the most difficult tasks. The fact that the 
absolute variability of the response of the city-White group (the 
most capable of our subjects) to the Pantomime test decreases 
with advance in both age and grade—a tendency the reverse of 
that usually manifested—serves at least as circumstantial evidence 
for the latter hypothesis. It is interesting, moreover, to note at 
this point that while the city groups of the two nationalities tend 
to attain more nearly similar performance standards in the case 
of the Pantomime test as the age of the groups is increased, there 
is no evidence of any tendency for the degree of overlapping of 
White and Mexican National-test distributions to vary con- 
sistently with changes in age, nor does such a tendency appear in 
the reactions of the rural pupils to either test. Doubtless, a sam- 
pling factor in these cases is counteracting the diversifying 
influence of a more variable environment. 

Sigmas. A consideration of the sigmas of the various age- and 
grade-group distributions is of some interest, not only because of 
the light they will shed on the issues already raised, but also 
because of the frequently iterated dogma that, given races whose 
average ability is equal, that race is socially most valuable which 
is the most variable, provided the variability is conspicuous in a 
positive direction. One genius can supposedly render society 
greater service than many mediocre individuals. 

A comparison of the absolute variability of the age and grade 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 69 


groups of Whites and Mexicans shows: (1) the rural Whites 
have a higher absolute variability in both Pantomime- and 
National-test performance, and this relation holds also in nine out 
of twelve possible comparisons between the city age groups fur- 
nished by these two tests (see Tables XVII to XX and XXII to 
XXV); (2) the standard deviations of the city grade groups of 
the two nationalities for these same tests are not consistently differ- 
ent in size, whereas the sigmas of the Detroit and Pintner-Cun- 
ningham age- and grade-group distributions are even greater in 
the case of the Mexicans than the Whites; (3) the city Mexicans 
of a given grade are more variable than the rural Whites, but the 
age groups show no significant differences ; (4) the standard devia- 
tion of the distributions of the National scores for both peoples 
and the Pantomime scores of the two rural groups tends to vary 
directly with age; (5) as far as the urban samples are concerned, 
there is no consistent alteration with advance in age or grade in 
the ratio of the absolute variabilities of the Mexicans and Whites, 
except in the grade-sigma comparisons of the Pintner-Cunning- 
ham and Detroit tests (here the relative difference in the standard 
deviations of the two groups seems to diminish as the grade is 
advanced); (6) the greater the age and grade the less is the 
relative difference in the absolute variability of performance of 
the rural samples of the two nationalities with the exception of 
the comparisons by grades for the Pantomime test; (7) the in- 
crease with advance in age in the diversity of the responses offered 
by the rural-Mexican groups seems to occur more rapidly than 
in the case of the rural Whites. | 

The diversity in the variability of performance of comparable 
groups may be the result of: (1) differences in the native varia- 
bilities of the nationalities; (2) the more variable play of social 
and economic forces upon one group than another; (3) the 
indirect action of these forces in the selection of the school sample 
of the populations; and (4) the ease or very great difficulty of 
the test, a factor which militates against a high variability in the 
older and least capable samples. These factors, let us suggest, do 
not operate singly, a condition which, doubtless, accounts for the 
multiplicity of tendencies shown. A few possible interpretations 


70 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


of our results will be submitted, although we have little in the 
way of material that will settle any one point. 

The fact that the Whites, generally speaking, have a higher 
absolute variability than the Mexicans may indicate that our 
Mexican subjects are more uniformly equipped in native ability 
than are the Whites. Although, undoubtedly, we are dealing 
largely with the peon class of Mexicans, whereas we touch all 
classes of Whites, still we can make no inferences from this fact 
in regard to the fundamental intellectuality of our subjects 
because the nature of the relationship of social status and intelli- 
gence has never been entirely successfully demonstrated. Studies 
such as Downey’s,! Terman’s,? Duff and Thomson’s,’ etc., have 
point in this connection. 

Since a priori consideration indicates that the environment of 
the Whites is less uniform and more complex than that of the 
Mexicans, we might expect this factor to be one of the causes 
of the rather consistently greater absolute variability of the 
Whites. The greater uniformity of the reaction of the rural 
White to the test, as contrasted with that of the city Mexican, 
may also be a result of the greater variety of stimulations which 
the city offers. Still, it is always possible to reason that the 
city, because of the diversity of its appeals, selects a natively more 
variable group than the country. The direct action of a more 
diversified environment may be, furthermore, productive of the 
result that the standard deviation of the distribution of the 
National scores for both nationalities and the Pantomime scores 
of the two rural groups tends to vary directly with age. 

Too great ease or defective test weighting probably accounts, 
at least in part, for the reversal of the aforementioned tend- 
ency in the case of the reaction of the city Whites to the 
Pantomime test. 

*JuneE Downey. “Standardized Test and Mental Inheritance,” J. of 
Hered., 9, 1918, 311-314. 

*L. M. Terman. The Intelligence of School Children. New York: 
Houghton Mifflin Co., 1919. 

* James F. Durr and Goprrey H. THomson. “ The Social and Geographical 


Distribution of Intelligence in Northumberland.” Brit. J. of Psychol., 14, 
1923, 192-197. 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN. »71 


That the city Whites of a given grade are no more variable 
than the city Mexicans, as they are in the age comparisons, sug- 
gests the combined operation of two or more antagonistic factors. 
A rather uniform environment may act so as to select a school 
group that exhibits a wide range, indeed, in its preparation and 
skills. The Mexicans, for instance, in a given grade are, doubt- 
less, a relatively heterogeneous group, because of the irregularity 
of their school attendance, of late school entrance, etc., but the 
lack of variety in their home, church, and business life may 
counteract this diversifying factor, in part, and render the per- 
formance of the Mexicans in a given grade about as varied as 
that of the Whites who are played upon by a greater range of 
social and economic conditions, generally, but at the same time 
by more uniform scholastic influences. 

The fact that the Mexican offers a wider gamut of responses 
to the one-grade test than do the Whites may be interpreted as 
a result, in part at least, of our method of designating the grade 
of the child. While the Detroit and Pintner-Cunningham tests 
were given before the mid-term promotions, the grade classifica- 
tion of the child was considered to be that which he had after 
mid-term. Since retardation for a multiplicity of rather patent 
reasons is more pronounced for the Mexicans in the early grades 
than for the Whites, one would expect a group composed entirely 
of Mexicans, who had been promoted at mid-term, to be more 
homogeneous than a corresponding group of White pupils. Then, 
too, since retardation of the older Whites can be attributed very 
largely to dullness, whereas retardation among the Mexicans is 
equally likely to be the result of linguistic difficulties, late en- 
trance, etc., we may expect the variability of the Whites of a 
given age found in a single grade to decrease with advance in 
age, whereas we may look for a reverse condition or no relation 
at all between the size of the sigma and the age of the Mexican 
subjects in a single grade. 


2. COMPARISON OF CITY AND RURAL GROUPS 


Test Scores. The city Mexicans and Whites score much 
higher on both Pantomime and National tests than their respec- 


72 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


tive rural groups, when the two are compared by ages, as well 
as by grades. (See Tables XVII to XX, XXI to XXV, and 
Figures 6 to 11.) The reliability of the age-group differences 
is attested by the fact that the reliability quotient in the case 
of the two Mexican groups ranges between 3.42 and 25.28 for 
the Pantomime test, and between 2.87 and 10.01 for the National. 
In the case of the White age groups, the scatter for the Panto- 
mime is from 4.51 to 14.61; and for the National, from .18 to 
6.93. The Pantomime grade-group quotients fall within the 
limits of 4.37 and 16.56, and of 7.23 and 18.14 in the case of 
the Whites and Mexicans, respectively ; whereas for the National 
test the corresponding scatters are from .23 to 6.24 and from 
4.63 to 6.30. 

The number of city pupils exceeding the median rural score 
is usually great. The range is from 56 to 96 per cent for the 
age groups, and from 53 to 98 per cent for the grade (see 
Tables XXI and XXVI). The age and grade groups of the 
two socio-economic divisions show about an equal amount of 
overlapping, a condition especially interesting in contrast to that 
which obtained in the White-Mexican comparisons. No deduc- 
tions in regard to the influence of opportunity can be made, 
however, on the basis of this contrast, since the factor of the 
age of the pupils for a given grade is more nearly equal 
in the intra-nationality than in the intra-urban or intra-rural 
comparisons, 

We note also, again contrary to the findings in the White- 
Mexican comparison, that the city and rural groups of both 
nationalities differ less from each other in their reactions to 
the National than to the Pantomime test. The highly selected 
nature of the National-test groups may be responsible for this 
phenomenon. The action of the factor of selection we should 
expect to be most patent in the younger National-test groups and 
also in the rural, as opposed to the urban divisions. The nine- 
year-old subjects of the Pantomime groups, for instance, are 
drawn from grades 1 to 6, whereas the nine-year-old National- 
test subjects are found only in the third grade or above, since 
the National test was not given below the third grade. These 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN | 73 


latter pupils, then, are those who have progressed rather regularly 
from grade to grade. For the Mexican, moreover, to make his 
way through the grades relatively unretarded, in spite of his 
linguistic and social handicaps is probably evidence of more real 
ability than a similar feat accomplished by a White student. The 
same statement may be slightly rephrased and made to apply to 
the rural as opposed to the city pupil. Hence, the National-test 
subjects are probably unusually intelligent, and this is especially 
true of the youngest Mexican group. 

The experimenters, furthermore, did not always find it feas- 
ible to give the National test to certain advanced grades of rural 
Mexicans and, occasionally, even Whites, because the students 
were too few or the communication difficulties prohibitive. Since 
the National-test subjects then are conscripted principally from 
the personnel of the better class schools, this phenomenon, doubt- 
less, functions to further raise the standard of the rural National- 
test groups, and so brings it about that the overlapping of city 
and rural distributions in the National-test grade groups, as well 
as the age, is greater than in the corresponding Pantomime. 

Tables XXI and XXVI show not only that the divergence of 
city and rural pupils is least on the National test but also that 
the Whites of the two economic divisions approach more nearly 
the same performance level than do the Mexicans. ‘This is true 
for both tests. We have already discussed the causative phe- 
nomena of this relationship when mentioning other of their 
manifestations, 1t.e., when they functioned to make the city 
groups of Whites and Mexicans more similar than the rural. We 
suggested then that, while the rural Whites may be natively rela- 
tively more superior Whites than the rural Mexicans are Mexi- 
cans, this explanation seems improbable. An explanation in 
terms of the greater similarity of the opportunities, scholastic 
and otherwise, of the two White groups, as Shuce to the two 
Mexican seems the more reasonable. 

Although the city and rural Whites perform generally with 
a more nearly similar degree of success than do the Mexicans, 
the relative standing of the two groups is not a fixed one. We 
find that the percentage of city Whites exceeding the median 


74 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


rural score on both tests tends to increase with the age of the 
subjects, a relationship to be expected if opportunity plays any 
great part in the determination of test performance. For the 
Mexican, on the other hand, the overlapping of the city and rural 
Pantomime-test age-group distributions decreases with advance 
in age only until the eleventh year, whereafter it again increases 
slightly. Doubtless, the influence of sampling factors, which we 
described at some length in the previous section, is sufficiently 
great to counterbalance, or even overbalance here, the diversify- 
ing effects of general environmental forces. In contrast to the 
Pantomime results, no consistent variation with age is shown in 
the degree of overlapping of city- and rural-Mexican National- 
test distributions. 

In the case of the grade groups, the percentage of city pupils 
making Pantomime scores in excess of the median rural seems 
to increase with the pedagogical rank of the subjects at least up 
until the fourth grade and to decrease slightly, perhaps, there- 
after. Since the number of cases in the advanced groups is rela- 
tively small, the representativeness of the latter tendency is 
somewhat questionable. Still, it seems not unreasonable that 
the most advanced rural pupils should be very highly selected, or 
the test so poorly weighted in its upper ranges that the skill of the 
most capable students is misrepresented. As far as the National 
test is concerned, the ascendancy of the city Whites over the 
rural seems to increase with grade, whereas for the Mexican the 
opposite condition obtains. 

Sigmas. A description of the relative magnitudes of the 
sigmas of our various groups will be attempted at this point, 
but no detailed interpretation of the relationships will be offered, 
as the factors probably effective in the production of the results, 
as well as the general method and occasions of their operation 
were suggested in the previous section. A repetition of these 
explanations would be prolix. The standard deviations (see 
Tables XVII to XX and XXII to XXV) of the distributions of 
the Pantomime-test age-group scores are greater in the case of 
the city Whites eleven years or younger than they are in the 
case of the rural Whites. For the older White groups, the oppo- 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 75 


site prevails. A similar tendency is manifested by the sigmas of 
the National tests taken by these groups, except that after the 
ninth year, rather than the eleventh, the rural groups become the 
more variable. An exception that presents itself is the perform- 
ance on the National test of the thirteen-year-old urban-White 
pupils, who show a slightly higher absolute variability than the 
corresponding rural group. 

The age-by-age comparisons of the rural and city Mexicans 
reveal the sigmas of the latter to be consistently the greater. 
Whereas, furthermore, for both country groups the size of the 
sigmas of the distributions of both tests increases markedly with 
increase in age, those of the city show no very consistent tendency 
to alter their size as the older pupils are dealt with. In the case 
of the reaction of the city Whites to the Pantomime test even a 
slight decrease in absolute variability with increase in age becomes 
apparent. 

While in general the higher the grade the greater the standard 
deviations of the distributions of the Pantomime scores of the 
rural pupils, the reverse applies to the sigmas of these groups 
domiciled in the city. The National test, however, calls out a 
more varied response from the advanced city groups of both 
nationalities, as well as from the rural Mexicans, although the 
response of the rural Whites does not alter in any uniform way 
with an increase in the stage of school progress of the subjects. 


3. COMPARISON OF CITY WHITES AND City NEGROES 


Test Scores. With one inconsequential exception, every pos- 
sible comparison between the city Whites and city Negroes offered 
by our tables (see Tables XVII to XX, XXII to XXV and 
Figures 6 to 11) shows the Whites to have the higher mean, 
as well as median, score. The reliability quotient for the age- 
group differences varies between 5.16 and 11.63 for the Panto- 
mime test; between .43 and 14.23 for the National; between 3.53 
and 4.31 for the Pintner-Cunningham ; and between 2.53 and 5.36 
for the Detroit. The scatter of the quotient for the grade com- 
parisons is from 1.38 to 14.37, from .72 to 11.23, from 1.77 
to 3.33, and from 1.19 to 6.16 for the. Pantomime, National, 


76 le HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


Pintner-Cunningham, and Detroit tests, respectively. The per- 
centage of the city-White’s scores in the various age and grade 
groups exceeding the median of the Negroes, ranges between 54 
and 91 (see Tables XXI and XXVI). All of these data, then, 
leave no doubt that the city Whites react more successfully to 
the tests than do the city Negroes. 

When, however, the city Negroes are compared with the rural 
Whites, the Negroes usually (exceptions are 7, 12, and 13 year 
age-groups and the first grade) excel on the Pantomime, while 
the Whites excel on the National test. These differences, how- 
ever, are slight, in contrast to those that exist between the city- 
White and city-Negro subjects. 

That the city Negro should outrank the rural White at all 
may probably be accounted for in terms of his greater age for 
a given grade and, perhaps, by his more ruthless elimination from 
school on the basis of scholastic or intellectual deficiency. This 
latter hypothesis is supported by the observation that it is the 
older and more advanced Negro groups who do rate higher than 
the rural-White on the Pantomime test. 

The influence of the factor of scholastic selection just de- 
scribed is probably somewhat counteracted, however, in the case 
of the oldest groups, by the relatively limited range of grades from 
which the Negro personnel was derived. Our Negro subjects 
were drawn principally from the first four grades, whereas our 
rural-White group is constituted of pupils in the grades up to 
the eighth. 

If the factors we have just suggested as productive of the 
Pantomime-test results are bona fide ones, then we have the fur- 
ther problem of accounting for the lower ranking on the National 
test of the city Negro as opposed to the rural White. It seems 
not unlikely that a linguistic deficiency of considerable degree is 
making itself felt. The Negroes’ relatively uncultured environ- 
ment, for example, would scarcely favor the development of an 
extensive English vocabulary, nor the acquirement of information 
of the sort necessary for skill in the sentence-completion or 
synonym-antonym test. Then, too, the very isolation of the 


A STUDY OF THE TEST'!PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 77 


country-White child may cause him to read more than the 
city Negro. 

The fact that this disadvantage of the city Negro on the Na- 
tional test seems to increase with age may be interpreted as the 
cumulative effect of environmental handicaps, but the further fact 
that this disadvantage does not increase also with grade indicates, 
probably, that at least part of the increase with age is the result 
of the more limited extent of the Negro grade range than that 
of the White. 

Our attention has been diverted in the immediately preceding 
paragraphs from the city-White-city-Negro comparison, and to 
that we now return. ‘The relative magnitude of the percentage of 
one race exceeding the median of another in the age comparisons 
and in the grade is a consideration of interest principally in con- 
trast to a corresponding question in the White-Mexican study, 
which revealed that here the racial divergence was greater in the 
age groups than in the grade (see Tables XXI and XXVI). The 
city Negro, however, is equally deficient in both age and grade 
comparisons—a fact that would suggest strongly the functioning 
of an opportunity factor in test performance that is prominent 
especially in the case of the Mexican, did we not note that the 
Negro is not relatively so old for a given grade as is the Mexican. 
In fact, he closely approaches the White standard and, hence, 
has no advantage such as the Mexican has in the comparisons 
by grades. 

The relative difficulties presented by the various tests to the 
city Negro, in contrast to the city White, are also not identical 
with those relationships revealed by the White-Mexican data. 
The Detroit test seems slightly more of a challenge for the first- 
grade Negro than is the Pantomime, if his deviation from the 
performance level of the White is taken as a standard of the 
difficulty of the test. When, however, the factor of age is equated 
the two tests seem to afford the Negro about the same hazards. 

The Pintner-Cunningham, on the other hand, is apparently less 
taxing for the second-grade Negro, relative to the White stand- 
ard, than is the Pantomime, but here again, when the factor of 
age is controlled, the Negro seems to handle the two tests equally 


78 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


successfully. Whether, however, as we have previously sug- 
gested, comparing those children of the two races of a given 
age found within a single grade does not penalize the White 
somewhat more heavily than the Negro by limiting to a greater 
degree the White sample, is a point worth consideration. 

In the intra-urban comparisons, contrary to the findings in the 
city-Negro-rural-White and in the White-Mexican data, a larger 
percentage of Whites exceed the median Pantomime score of the 
Negroes than exceed the median National. This we might expect, 
especially in the age groups, because of the highly selected nature 
of the Negro National-test samples. The interpretation becomes 
very plausible when we observe that the divergence of the two 
races in their reactions to the National test increases with age, 
and at fourteen years even exceeds the divergence found among 
the corresponding Pantomime-score distributions. It is also of 
some significance that, while the sigmas of the White National-test 
distributions increase with increase in the age of the group, such 
is not the case for the Negroes. 

The overlapping of the National-test grade distributions of 
the two races, presents a contrast to the age-group data, in that 
it is not significantly less than that for corresponding Pantomime- 
test groups. Whereas, furthermore, the percentage of Whites 
exceeding the Negro National-test median increases with advance 
in both age and grade, this is true for the Pantomime, only with 
respect to the factor age, and then, only within certain limits. 
The fact that the tendency is not manifested in the upper age 
range causes us to recall that the Pantomime probably does not 
offer a sufficient variety nor gradation of the more difficult tasks 
to measure successfully the ability of the more capable Whites. 

Since elimination in the Negro schools is rather heavy, the 
great increase with age in the relative magnitude of the Whites’ 
success is remarkable. The more limited grade range of the 
Negro, however, may be partly responsible for the phenomenon. 
Let us mention, also, in this connection that the racial overlapping 
decreases with grade, only in the case of the National test, in 
performance on which opportunity factors weigh heavily. 

Sigmas. The sigmas of our various distributions offer inter- 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 79 


esting supplementary data, and hence, a brief description of the 
more outstanding relationships among them will be attempted. 
The city-Negro age groups differ with some constancy from the 
city- White in the degree of their absolute variability only in their 
reaction to the National test. Here the gamut of the Negro 
responses seems the more restricted. The former do seem to have 
responded to the Detroit test in a more varied way than _the 
Whites, perhaps, but, since only two comparisons are available, 
the tendency shown does not justify any great confidence. 

The standard deviation for all of the Negro test-groups, except 
the Pantomime, seems to vary directly with age for a few early 
years and then inversely, as the older subjects are employed. A 
possible explanation is the heavy elimination of the Negroes in 
the higher grades and their great retardation in the lower. 

The older the city-White groups the greater the variability 
of performance on the National test. On the Pantomime, how- 
ever, which probably is not suitable for the more advanced stu- 
dents, the younger groups exhibit the more varied achievement. 
The Detroit and Pintner-Cunningham call forth about an equal 
diversity of response from all of the city-White age samples. 

A grade-by-grade comparison of the two races reveals that the 
Negroes have a consistently greater absolute variability than the 
Whites in their performance on the Pantomime and Detroit tests, 
as well as on the National in the less advanced grades, where 
retardation is great and the heaviest elimination has not yet 
begun. In the higher grades, as we have indicated, the sigma of 
the distribution of the National scores is less for the Negroes than 
for the Whites. 

With the exception of the National-test distributions, the stand- 
ard deviation for the White grade groups varies inversely with 
advance in grade. The variability of the Negro scores, on the 
other hand, decreases with advance in grade as far as the National 
and Detroit tests are concerned, shows no consistent tendency 
to alter with advance in grade in the case of the Pantomime test, 
and even increases with grade advancement in the case of the 
Pintner-Cunningham test. 

One would expect, as we have frequently observed, a positive 


80 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


correlation between variability of test performance and age, since 
time allows the diversifying factors to operate effectively, and 
between test performance and grade as well. Many factors 
playing upon our test groups, which we have already mentioned 
incidentally in our discussion, lend their weight to counterbalance 
this tendency. Among these, let the reader remember, are the 
weighting of the tests, the restriction of the talent-ranges in the 
extreme age groups, heavy elimination on the basis of scholastic 
deficiencies, and, lastly, such arbitrary selective factors as our 
method of designating the grade of the test. 


4. COMPARISON OF City MEXICANS AND City NEGROES 


Test Scores. The Mexican-Negro comparison (see Tables 


XVII to XXVI and Figures 6 to 11) should be of considerable 
interest as a contrast to our other comparisons. Whereas the 
two groups live under about equally unfavorable environmental 
conditions, one is further handicapped by his relative unfa- 
miliarity with the English tongue. Hence the role of the language 
difficulty which a foreigner suffers in test performance should 
be rendered apparent. 

The Negro score exceeds that of the Mexican at all ages below 
the tenth year in the case of the Pantomime test, and below the 
thirteenth, in the case of the National. With the exception of 
the tenth-year Detroit norms and the ninth-year Pintner-Cunning- 
ham median, the Negro age norms surpass those of the Mexicans 
in the two one-grade tests. 

The reliability quotients for the Mexican-Negro age-group 
differences are relatively small, but the data do point consistently 
to certain relationships. The range of the quotients is from .67 
to 4.22, from 0.00 to 3.20, from. .76 to 1.21, and from .29 to 
5.93 for the Pantomime, National, Pintner-Cunningham, and 
Detroit tests, respectively. 

The younger Negroes, to summarize, tend to excel the Mexi- 
cans, whereas this state of affairs is reversed in the case of the 
older groups. It is apropos to mention, too, at this point that 
the tendency of the Mexican scores on the National test to exceed 
those of the Negroes occurs at a much later age than in the case 


a? 
ng 


A STUDY OF THE.TEST PERFORMANCE, OF |CHILEDREN 81 


of the Pantomime test, and probably would never have occurred 
at all had the fifth-grade group of Negroes been a large and 
strong one. 

These differences in the relative success of the two races with 
the Pantomime and National tests are probably a reflection of 
the influence of the Mexican’s linguistic inabilities. This sugges- 
tion gains some cogency when we consider that the percentage 
of Mexicans exceeding the Negro median tends to increase with 
advance in age. As we have indicated in an earlier section, this 
language handicap which may make itself felt even in a non- 
verbal test such as the Pantomime, we may expect to diminish 
the longer the subjects have been in school. 

Exceptions to the tendency just described—.c., for the percent- 
age of Mexicans exceeding the Negro median to increase with 
age—are manifested in the most advanced Pantomime and Pint- 
ner-Cunningham groups. ‘The former case may indicate that 
elimination is less severe among the Mexicans, who in their 
contact with White teachers are associated more intimately with 
the White school-attendance tradition. A very efficient truant 
officer was, furthermore, hard at work in the Mexican schools. 
The Pintner-Cunningham data are based upon too few cases 
to warrant any serious consideration of the exception they present. 

The grade norms which supposedly equalize the school experi- 
ence of the two races are significant in connection with this prob- 
lem of the handicaps of the Mexican. The Pantomime scores for 
the Mexican grade groups are higher in every case than those of 
the Negro, but the former pupils are older and have more school 
experience for a given grade. The National-test scores, on the 
contrary, show the Mexican to be superior, only in the high fourth 
and fifth grade where the sampling of Negroes is probably very 
inadequate. It is possible, though, that here the linguistic dis- 
advantage of the Mexican is no longer very potent. 

If we shift our attention now to the problem of the relative 
difficulties presented by the various tests to the two races, as 
measured by the percentage of one race scoring higher than the 
median of the other, we discover that as far as grade comparisons 
are concerned the Detroit, Pintner-Cunningham, and National 


82 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


tests are about equally taxing for the Mexican and that they are 
considerably more so than the Pantomime. When, however, the 
factor of age is equated the Detroit and Pintner-Cunningham 
tests are not consistently more challenging to the Mexican, rela- 
tive to the Negro standard, than is the Pantomime, whereas the 
National test is. Had the technique of equating age in the one- 
grade tests not resulted in altering the quality of the general 
sampling of one race more than another, it is not unlikely that 
these would have shown themselves more difficult for the Mexi- 
can than they now appear. 

Sigmas. Since a description of the variability relationships in 
the Negro and Mexican data have been given elsewhere, merely 
a brief comparative summary will be attempted here. The stand- 
ard deviation of the Pantomime scores of the Negroes, with one 
exception, is greater than that of the Mexicans in the age groups 
below the twelfth year, whereafter it is less. The National test, 
as we might expect, because of the language involvement calls 
out a more varied response from the Mexican age groups than 
from the Negro, as does also the Pintner-Cunningham. The 
variability of the reaction of the two groups to the Detroit test, 
on the other hand, shows no consistent difference. 

The size of the sigma for the Negro samples does not alter 
consistently with increase in age, whereas that of the Mexican 
seems to vary directly with age in the case of the Pantomime 
and Pintner-Cunningham tests. The leveling effect of language 
training may mask the tendency in the case of the National test, 
where, at any rate, it does not appear. 

Within the grade groups, with the possible exception of per- 
formance on the National test, where the Mexicans are slightly 
more variable, there is no consistent difference in the standard 
deviations of the racial distributions. 

The influence of grade is anything but uniform, too, in its 
effects upon the variability of performance of our racial groups 
on the various tests. The sigmas of both groups vary inversely 
with grade in the case of the Detroit test. The sigmas of the 
Pintner-Cunningham test, on the other hand, vary inversely with 
grade for the Mexican and directly for the Negro groups. This 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 83 


condition is reversed in the case of the National test. | While 
for the Pantomime test the sigmas of the distributions of Mexi- 
can scores decrease with advance in grade, those of the Negro 
show no consistent change. 


5. COMPARISON OF THE MEXICAN COLOR GROUPS 


Because of the great difference in social opportunity of our 
various subjects and because of the difficulty of getting truly 
representative and comparable samples of each nationality or race, 
it has been almost impossible to determine the role that native 
ability or so-called “ intelligence’ has had in the production of 
our results. We may, however, control with considerable success 
the factor of environment by limiting our investigation to the 
racial or nationality group itself and examining the behavior of 
those who have a mixed ancestry, a White-Mexican or White- 
Negro, for instance, in contrast to those who come from almost 
a pure native stock. A pedigree study, of course, is impossible, 
but a very rough measure of the extent of hybridization of 
Mexican and White or Negro and White is available—namely, 
the depth of skin-pigmentation. No one is aware more keenly 
than the authors of the deficiencies of this measure, but the 
measure, rough as it is, is better than none. We have conse- 
quently, on the basis of an arbitrarily chosen, yet objective color 
scale (color card) for the Mexican and for the Negro, classified 
the pupils of these races into three color groups. These groups 
we shall refer to as “light,” “intermediate,” and “dark.” The 
color scale was in the hands of the authors as they made their 
judgments. Thus the danger of inaccurate memory was elimi- 
nated. The judgments were made on the basis of the pigmenta- 
tion of the face which usually differed decidedly from that of 
the neck or hands, for instance. 

Three methods of measuring the general adaptability of each 
of these color groups have been adopted. One method is the 
determination of the percentage of the personnel of each grade 
that exhibits each degree of pigmentation. The theory underlying 
this procedure is that, if the light pupils, for example, are intel- 
lectually most capable, they will survive in greater numbers in the 


84 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


upper grades than will the dark, etc. Since our color measure 
is exceedingly crude, and since our color investigation was limited 
principally to the pupils of the first four grades, where the effect 
of the elimination of the unfit has not yet made itself keenly felt, 
we could scarcely expect this method to be extremely successful. 
Then, too, it is questionable whether it is safe to assume that there 
is no natural change in the depth of pigmentation with an increase 
in the age of the subjects. Lastly, the older pupils, especially the 
girls, may be addicted to the use of skin beautifiers. The authors, 
for instance, found it necessary to be continually on their guard 
in order to escape the illusion created by the use of powder. 

With the exception, perhaps, of the case of the rural subjects, 
there seems to be no tendency for the percentage of the 
lightly pigmented Mexicans to vary directly with grade (see 
Table XXVIT). 

Our second method of attack was to compute the mean and 
median scores on the various tests of the total color groups. If 
the light pupils, to illustrate, are the most intelligent, they should 
on the average, react more successfully to the tests than those 
more deeply colored, unless the fact that all pupils have been 
chosen from equivalent grades, where a significant selective 
activity has had an opportunity to operate, masks a tendency that 
would have been apparent in a less homogeneous population. 

A comparison of the scores of the total color groups of the 
Mexicans yields the following results: The median scores of 
the various test groups show none of the color groups to be con- 
sistently superior (see Table XXVIII). However, for all tests 
and for both rural and urban samples, with the exception of the 
performance of the city pupils on the Pantomime test, the mean 
score of the light group is higher than that of the other two. It 
ranks second in the case of the exception mentioned. None of 
the group differences is statistically significant except the differ- 
ence between the scores of the light and intermediate groups on 
the Pantomime test. The results, then, of this procedure are 
largely negative. The rather consistent tendency of the mean 
scores of the light group to exceed those of the other color popula- 
tions is, perhaps, worthy of slight consideration. 


85 


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A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 















































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90 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


Our third and probably most fruitful attack may be pre- 
sented in the form of a question: Among the pupils of a given 
age, do those of the lighter hues have a larger percentage of their 
scores above the group median than do those who are darker? 
The extreme paucity of cases in many of our age-color groups is 
a defect in this approach which is not to be overlooked. This 
defect excluded, however, the method offers few difficulties, since 
it controls fairly well the selective effects of both age and grade 
which mar the two techniques previously described. 

The data accruing from this third method of analysis are pre- 
sented in Tables XXIX to XXXII. In 9 out of the 18 possible | 
comparisons afforded by the Pantomime age groups, the light 
pupils have a larger percentage of their scores above the age 
medians than do their more swarthy comparisons, and in two 
more comparisons, the light group tie for first rank.’ The inter- 
mediate group rank first in three companions, third in nine, and 
second in six, while the dark, hold the ranks first, second, and 
third, respectively, 5, 4, and 7 times, and tie for first rank twice. 

The Detroit and Pintner-Cunningham tests show tendencies 
somewhat similar to the Pantomime. In 3 out of the 5 legitimate 
comparisons furnished by the Pintner-Cunningham data (see 
Table XXXII) the light group rank first and tie for first place 
once. The intermediate group never excel, and hold second and 
third place twice and thrice, respectively. The most deeply pig- 
mented Mexicans claim third rank, once; second, twice; first, once, 
and tie for first, once. 

The Detroit test (see Table XX XI) presents six possible com- 
parisons and in four of these the light pupils assume first place, 
whereas the intermediate and dark claim only one first place each. 

The results of the National test (see Table XXX) are in strik- 
ing contrast to those just described, for in only 2 out of 10 
chances do those with least pigmentation take first rank, and they 
tie for first place only twice. The other color groups each rank 
first, three times and tie for first, twice. 

* Since we shall describe many of our results in terms of rank, let it be under- 
stood that we mean by “ first rank,” for instance, that the group so ranking has 


a larger percentage of its membership with scores above the median of the 
appropriate age than do the other color groups. 


91 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 














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92 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


Were we to determine the average rank of each color group 
on the basis of the 39 possible comparisons which the results of 
the four tests afford, we should find that of the light pupils to be 
1.77 ; that of the intermediate and dark 2.18 and 2.05, respectively. 

The significant facts revealed by our data then are: (1) the 
rather uniform excellence of the light group and (2) the failure 
of the intermediate group to hold an intermediate position in test 
performance. If our theory has any significance, this latter 
observation is difficult to explain. Chance and the paucity of 
cases, in especially our light and dark samples, may be responsible 
for the irregularity. As the results stand, they are not decisive. 


6. COMPARISON OF THE NEGRO COLOR GROUPS 


The same general procedure was followed for the Negroes as 
for the Mexicans except, of course, that'a different color scale 
was used. The results yielded by the analysis are similar to those 
presented by the Mexican data, though perhaps more. clearly 
defined. | 

The percentage of light pupils in a given grade population is 
higher, the higher the grade, while the percentage of those 
mediumly and darkly pigmented varies in no consistent way with 
the stage of school progress (see Table XXXIIT). 

A study of the mean and median scores of the various total 
color groups discloses the fact that in all the tests, except the 
Pintner-Cunningham, on which the intermediate groups excel, the 
lightest children outstrip the others (see Table XXXIV). The 
intermediate and dark groups claim either the lowest or inter- 
mediate scores, that is, there is no consistency in their ranking. 

While the reliability quotients are considerably higher than 
those furnished by the Mexican data, still they are not large. 
Only 5 out of the 24 quotients computed on the basis of the mean 
and median differences exceed 3, and 8 are less than 1. The 
rather uniform tendency of the light group to rank first is, how- 
ever, not to be overlooked. 

The least dusky of our Negro subjects succeed in placing a 
larger percentage of their scores above the age-group medians 
than do the darker in 6 out of 10 opportunities afforded by the 
Pantomime data (see Table XXXV). Each of the other color 


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groups excels only once. In the case of the National test (see 
Table XXXVI), the percentage of scores above the median is 
greatest for the members of the light group in 4 out of 7 com- 
parisons. The intermediates claim 2 first places, and the darks, 1. 
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same tendencies. The fairer Negroes outrank the darker, as far 
as the Detroit test is concerned, in 4 out of the 4 possible com- 
parisons (see Table XXXVII). The intermediates claim no first 
places, but 3, second, and 1, third; while the darks rank third, 
3 times, and second, once. The lights also surpass the other 
groups in the case of 2 out of the 5 age-group comparisons which 
the Pintner-Cunningham test presents, and tie for first rank in a 
third case (see Table XX XVIII). 

The average rank on the basis of the 26 comparisons afforded 
by the four tests is 1.44, 2.06, and 2.44 for the light, intermediate, 
and dark color-groups, respectively. Hence we may conclude 
that success in test performance tends to vary inversely with the 
depth of the pigmentation in the Negro subjects. This is an 
argument in favor of the intellectual superiority of the Whites; 
but, of course, it is none too conclusive, because of the limited 
number of cases in most of our age-color samples. 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 97 


VIII. CORRELATIONS OF THE TESTS WITH EACH 
OTHER AND WITH AGE AND SCHOOL 
EXPERIENCE, 


1. STATEMENT OF THE CORRELATION PROBLEMS 


Up to this point our main emphasis in the analysis of our data 
has been placed upon the comparison of our different subject 
groups, whether this comparison be in terms of pedagogical 
attainments and opportunities or in terms of test-score results. 
In this section our interest is centered on a comparison of the 
tests themselves. More specifically, our problem is to determine 
the correlation between the different tests for our various subject 
groups, and furthermore, to consider the influence of the factors 
of age and school experience upon the test-performance. 


2. CORRELATION OF THE PANTOMIME WITH THE OTHER TESTS 

Let us consider first the relationship of the Pantomime to each 
of the other three tests. The correlations have been computed by 
the product-moment method and are presented in Table XX XIX. 

As to the relative size of the coefficients for the various subject 
groups, it may be seen that the Pantomime and National tests 
show a lower degree of relationship than do the Pantomime and 
Detroit, or the Pantomime and Pintner-Cunningham tests. This 
is true in the case of the city Whites and the city Mexicans: for 
the city Negro, the coefficient of correlation for the Pantomime 
and Pintner-Cunningham tests is identical with that for the Pan- 
tomime and National tests. 

Our results indicate, then, a greater relationship between two 
non-verbal tests than between a non-verbal and a verbal test. This 
is what one would expect a priori, and we have reason to believe 
that our differences would have been much more striking under 
different conditions. The Detroit test, for instance, is a first- 
grade test, and the Pintner-Cunningham, it will be remembered, 
was given to pupils of the second grade only. With these restric- 
tions our groups in the non-verbal test comparisons were less 


HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 














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A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN . 99 


heterogeneous than those in the Pantomime-National comparison, 
since the National test was administered to third, fourth, fifth, 
and, with some groups, sixth-graders. Statisticians have pointed 
out repeatedly that variations in the range and character of dis- 
tributions affect the size of the coefficient, even though the rela- 
tion between the two measures remain the same. We have every 
reason to assume, then, that the correlations between our non- 
verbal tests would have been higher, and hence our differences 
more conspicuous, had we had a greater range of grades included 
in our test groups. 

As to the comparison of our coefficients in terms of subject 
groups, we find the ranking practically the same, whether we con- 
sider the inter-test correlations singly or the mean of the three. 
Thus the city Whites are superior to the city Mexicans in two 
inter-test comparisons and identical in one. The city Mexicans 
are superior to the city Negroes in two out of three inter-test 
comparisons, the advantage in the one case for the Negro being 
very slight. The only inter-test comparison that can be made in 
the case of the rural subjects reveals the rural White superior to 
the corresponding Mexican group. If we obtain for each subject 
group the arithmetic mean of the three inter-test correlations, we 
find that the city Whites head the list with a coefficient of .53; 
the city Mexicans follow with a coefficient of .43, and the city 
Negroes rank last with a coefficient of .38. The superiority of 
rank in the case of the city Whites is due mainly to the high 
correlation, relative to those of the Mexican and Negro, of the 
Pantomime and National tests. 

Why the coefficient in the case of the Whites is higher than 
that of the Mexicans and the Negroes is a matter for interpreta- 
tion, and several possibilities suggest themselves. It may be that, 
in the case of the Whites, factors likely to be detrimental are elimi- 
nated, and that therefore intelligence has a greater chance to play. 
The difference may be due to an inequality of sampling. The 
Whites, it will be remembered, were selected from the third, 
fourth, fifth, and sixth grades, the Mexicans from the third 
through the fifth, while most of the Negroes were drawn from 
the third and fourth grades. Thus our sample of older Mexicans 
and of Negroes might represent a narrower intellectual range than 


100 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


that of the Whites. As a third possibility, let us consider the role 
of language, as a factor that differentiates the groups. If the 
understanding and use of the English language contribute directly 
to successs on the National test, and if we may assume that these 
achievements are due wholly or in large part to training and social 
opportunity, then we shall have to grant that the advantage is 
on the side of the White, and that the disparity in the type of 
performance demanded by the two different tests is less in 
their case. 7 

The mean of the correlation coefficients for the Negro group > 
not only falls below that of the Whites, but of the Mexicans as 
well. The correlation between the Pantomime and Pintner-Cun- 
ningham tests seems unreasonably low in view of the fact that 
the Pantomime and Detroit coefficient is .56. It is rather signifi- 
cant, however, that the sigma of the Negro distribution with the 
Detroit test is high in comparison to the Mexican distribution with 
the Pintner-Cunningham test. In this latter case, on the other 
hand, the sigma of the Negro distribution is relatively low. 

That the Negroes’ Pantomime-National correlation is low, rela- 
tive to the Mexicans’, may also be due to a difference in homo- 
geneity of the two groups. It has previously been mentioned that 
the range in the case of the Mexicans extended over the third, 
fourth, and fifth grades, while that of the Negroes was limited 
to the third and fourth, with a bare representation in the fifth. 
Another possible interpretation, however, suggests itself. It will 
be remembered from the discussion of our test results that the 
Negroes excel the Mexicans on the National test up to a certain 
point in their development, or perhaps training, and then the 
relationship becomes reversed in favor of the Mexicans. In other 
words, it is conceivable that in the higher grades (fourth and 
fifth) the city Mexican may be less handicapped by the language 
factor than is the Negro. If such is the case, the lack in equality 
of tasks of the two tests would weigh heavily against the Negro, 
since the subjects taking both the Pantomime and National tests 
are third, fourth, and fifth graders. 

The city and rural correlations are still to be considered. It will 
be seen from the table that the correlation between the Pantomime 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 101 


and National tests is lower for the rural Whites than for the city 
Whites ; but, on the other hand, the corresponding correlation for 
the rural Mexican is higher than that for the city Mexican. 
In both cases the city-rural discrepancies are so slight that it is 
difficult to decide whether they are real or due merely to chance 
factors. The experimenters have, however, remarked from time 
to time that, although the Pantomime test does not require the 
use of language either in the giving or in the taking, social experi- 
ence, social concepts, and indirectly a language factor, all play 
a part in the understanding of the test situation. What we mean 
is this: the American child, we may assume, is familiar with the 
objects pictured in this test and, furthermore, he has labeled them 
with a name. This above assumption does not hold in the case 
of the Mexican, especially of the rural Mexican. To be specific, 
the missing shoe button on the practice sheet of the Pantomime 
test is a normal state of_affairs for the rural Mexican. Again, 
the picture of the modern cooking-range to which the child is 
supposed to add the missing stove pipe, is, without doubt, a rare 
object in the life of a rural Mexican. It is very doubtful, in fact, 
if there was a cooking-range in the hut of a single child in any 
rural Mexican school visited. We might argue, then, that a 
greater relationship between the Pantomime and National tests 
is apt to result for the rural Mexican than for the city Mexican. 
The rural children who lacked the school accomplishments which 
the National test brings into play, were also deficient in certain 
social experiences which successful performance on the Panto- 
mime test demands. 

The object experience of the city Mexican, on the other hand, 
is much more like that of the city White. The same may be said 
with regard to the rural White; the objects and situations sug- 
gested in the Pantomime test are about equally familiar to the 
White child, whether he live in the city or in the country. There- 
fore, we should expect the Pantomime-National correlation coeff- 
cient of the rural Whites, if it differed at all from that of the 
city Whites, to be lower, since the formers’ training or skill in 
the use of language is apt to be less. 


102 


HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 

















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A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 103 


3. CORRELATION OF TEST PERFORMANCE WITH AGE AND 
ScHOOL EXPERIENCE 


The next problem that presents itself for consideration is the 
relationship of certain factors, such as chronological age and 
school experience, to the different tests. Table XL shows these 
correlations for the various subject groups. In comparing the 
relationship of our two factors, age and school experience, to 
the different tests, it is necessary to restrict this comparison to 
one test at a time rather than to note the relative influence of 
these factors upon the four different tests. To be more specific, 
we cannot ask whether school experience has more in common 
with the Pantomime, National, Detroit, or Pintner-Cunningham 
tests because the range of the distribution varies with each test; 
that is, the first five or sometimes six grades, the first three, the 
first, and the second, respectively. We can, however, legitimately 
ask this question: Has school experience or age more in common 
with the Pantomime test, and does this relationship hold for the 
various subject populations? And, in like manner, the same ques- 
tion may be asked in regard to each of the other three tests. 

The main results of Table XL may be summarized as follows: 

1. With the Pantomime test, age and school experience show 
about the same degree of relationship in the case of the city popu- 
lations; with the rural groups, school experience seems more 
closely related to the test than does age. 

2. With the National test, school experience correlates higher 
than does age, and this is true for all subject groups. 

3. With the Detroit test, age shows a slightly higher relation- 
ship than does school experience. 

4. With the Pintner-Cunningham test, age correlates higher 
than does school experience for two groups, whereas the reverse 
is true for one group. 

That the factor of school experience has much in common with 
performance on the National test is rather forcibly brought out 
by these data. This same fact may be shown by another method 
of attack—namely, the method of “partial” correlation, by 
which we may “ hold constant ” or “ eliminate ” these factors and 
note which has the most effect upon reducing the original correla- 


104 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


tion. Let us illustrate with the city White group. The correla- 
tion between the National test and age is .46. Holding constant 
the factor of school experience reduces the coefficient to .15.1 The 
correlation between the National test and school experience is .62, 
and holding constant the factor of age lowers the coefficient to .49. 
Thus the first correlation is reduced 3.2 times as much as 
the second. 

Since age and school experience as we deal with them are not 
factors which are mutually exclusive, but the former is an essen- 
tial part of the latter, eliminating by the partial correlation tech- 
nique the effects of the latter eliminates at the same time a part of 
the effects of the former. Hence, the interpretation of our find- 
ings is difficult. It seems not unlikely, however, that the differ- 
ence in content between the National and the other tests used 
is a factor in our results. All of the tests, as has been pointed 
out repeatedly, demand experience upon the part of the persons 
submitting to them; but the National test, more than the others, 
calls for the sort of experience one acquires in school. This 
must not necessarily be interpreted to mean that the non-verbal 
tests are better measures of intelligence than are the verbal ones; 
there may be inadequacies in the former that outweigh those 
of the latter. Certain difficulties such as the influence of social 
environment upon the performance in non-verbal tests, and the 
fact that the Pantomime test becomes too easy for the older White 
children have been mentioned previously. The point we are 
emphasizing here is merely the effectiveness of this factor in 
certain types of intelligence tests. 

With the National test, under the conditions of our experiment, 
the factor of school experience seems to be considerably more 
effective than that of age. It is obvious, then, that such a type 
of test might penalize very heavily any subjects corresponding to 
the norm in age but deficient in school experience. It is important, 
then, to equate for pedagogical opportunity, if any predictions are 


‘The partial correlations have been calculated by the use of the following 
formula from Yule, G. N., “Introduction to the Theory of Statistics, p. 238: 


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A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 105 


to be based upon the test results. In many instances, a grade norm 
will help us out. This device, however, especially for a compari- 
son of diverse groups, must be considered far from perfect, for 
grade equality does not necessarily mean equality of school experi- 
ence or school opportunity. 

That our different groups react to the various tests with differ- 
ent degrees of success is clear; the reason for this is not so 
obvious. With different racial, national, and socio-economic 
groups the environmental factors are so diverse that any generali- 
zation as. to causation would be hazardous. 


106 - HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


IX. SUMMARY 


The more important facts brought out by our group compari- 
sons may be summarized as follows: 

1. The city Whites are younger, in the grade-for-grade com- 
parisons, than are the city Mexicans or the city Negroes. 

2. The city Negro is younger for his grade than is the city 
Mexican. 

3. The city groups, whether White or Mexican, are younger 
for their grades than are their respective rural groups. 

4. The ranking of our groups in terms of variability of age- 
grade achievement is as follows: the rural Mexican is most 
variable, the city Negro next, the city Mexican third, the rural 
White fourth, and the city White least. 

5. The comparison of our groups with respect to school-experi- 
ence records, shows larger and more consistent differences when 
the comparisons are based on age rather than on grade attainment. 

6. The Mexicans, both city and rural, have spent less time in 
school for their age than have the corresponding White groups. 

7. The city Negro has, on the whole, less school experience 
for his age than has the city White, but more than the city 
Mexican. 

8. The city groups, whether White or Mexican, have more 
school experience than have the corresponding rural groups of 
the same age. 

9. The Whites, compared by ages and grades with the Mexi- 
cans in corresponding socio-economic divisions, show the more 
successful reaction to all of the tests. The differences between the 
grade groups of the two nationalities are, on the whole, less than 
those between the age groups. 

10. The National test is consistently more difficult for the 
Mexicans, as compared with the Whites, than is the Pantomime. 
The same may probably be said of the Detroit test also. 

11. The city Mexican more nearly attains the city-White stand- 
ard on the tests than does the rural Mexican the rural-White 
standard. 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 107 


12. The city Mexicans excel the rural Whites, as far as per- 
formance on the Pantomime test is concerned. ‘This superiority 
is apparent in most of both age and grade comparisons. On the 
National, the distinctly linguistic test, however, the rural Whites 
excel the city Mexicans. 

13. The city groups, whether Mexican or White, amass higher 
scores on all of the tests than do their respective rural groups. 
Age- and grade-group differences are about equally significant. 

14. The city groups differ less from the rural in their per- 
formance on the National test than on the Pantomime. 

15. City and rural Whites approach more nearly the same 
standard of test performance than do city and rural Mexicans. 

16. The city-Whites’ scores surpass the city-Negroes’ in all 
comparisons. The age and grade groups show about equal 
differences. 

17. A larger percentage of city-Whites’ scores exceed the 
median Pantomime score of the city Negroes than exceed the 
median National. 

18. The city Negro outscores the rural White on the Panto- 
mime test. The reverse relationship obtains for the National 
test. These differences are slight. 

19. When compared by ages, the younger Negroes outrank the 
Mexicans on all tests. The opposite holds for the older groups. 

20. All grade comparisons show the city-Mexicans’ scores on 
the Pantomime test to be higher than those of the Negro. The 
Negro grade groups, however, tend to excel on the National test. 

21. The absolute variability of our groups seems to be a func- 
tion of age, grade, test, method of sample selection, etc. Speak- 
ing very generally, we may say that the Whites seem to have a 
greater absolute variability than the Mexicans, and the city pupils 
(especially the younger) seem more variable than the rural. 

22. The most lightly pigmented Mexicans tend to react more 
successfully to the tests than do the darker Mexicans. Our 
results, however, are not very decisive. 

23. The lighter the Negro the better, usually, his performance 
on our tests. 


108 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS ~ 


24. The correlations between two non-verbal tests tend to be 
higher than those between a verbal and a non-verbal test. 

25. The correlations of the tests with age and school experience 
are consistently positive for every subject group. 

26. The degree of correlation of the tests with age and school 
experience varies with the test and with the subject group. 

27. With the National test, school experience correlates more 
highly than does age, and this is. true for every group. 


A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 109 


XA PEN DEX 


Since it has been the common practice when engaging in a 
comparison of the variability of groups to state the results in 
terms of the coefficient of variability (Pearson’s formula is 
100c 100 M.D. 

; Thorndike’s is ——————), the reader may request some 

M — Md. 

comment in regard to the omission of this measure in the data 
presented in the body of our discussion. For the benefit of those 
who may have an interest in this question, tables describing the 
relative variabilities in test performance (computed according to 
the Pearson formula) are included in this appendix. Our reasons 
for dispensing with the aforementioned statistical tool are sum- 
marized briefly in the following statements: 

1. The tests applied to the various racial groups were identical. 

2. The time allotted each performer for any given section of 
the test was constant. 

3. Since we can not assume that the quality measured in each 
group (Mexican, Negro, or White intellect) is not of the same 
structural order, but find this among the items to be demon- 
strated, the use of a tool justified only by such an assumption 
seems questionable. 

4. The zero of the scale is not the zero of the quality measured. 

5. The sigmas bear out the tendencies shown by the range and 
by the comparisons of the absolute variabilities of groups which 
have equivalent measures of central tendency. 

6. We have no interest in individual comparisons, nor have 
we any interest in propagandism which would make necessary an 
adherence on our part to relative categories. 

7. Since the selective and general environmental factors play- 
ing upon our various groups are so manifold and their modus 
operandi so obscure, as is also the influence of the weightings of 
the tests in their various ranges, any assumption that a statement 
of variability in relative rather than absolute terms will bring 
us in closer contact with native or genetic factors is equivocal, 
to say the least. 





110 


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HELEN LOIS KOCH: AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


XI. BIBLIOGRAPHY 


. AITKEN, B. The New Regional Survey of Mexico. Eug. Rev., 1923, 15, 


330-334. 


. ANon. Some Racial Considerations Necessary in Making Mental Exam- 


inations of Negroes. Med. Rec., 1917, 91, 243-244. 


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22. 


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29. 


30. 


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32. 


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36. 
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38. 
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40. 


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44, 


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A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 113 


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114 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


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A STUDY OF THE TEST PERFORMANCE OF CHILDREN 115 


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116 HELEN LOIS KOCH AND RIETTA SIMMONS 


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